Bridging the water

This February five groups of students have been trained in Cape Town in Basic of Waste Water Treatment, Nutrient Removal and Sludge Treatment and Basics of Drinking Water Production. The waste water training was delivered by Dutch trainers Hans Mollen and Melanie Nuchelmans (Waterschap Brabantse delta) and South African co-trainers Oupa Selowe and Graham van Niekerk (City of Cape Town). The water production was taught by Ron Jong (KWR) and co-trainers Allen Blankenberg And Daisy Legodi (City of Cape Town). All training delivery’s are part of the Orange Knowledge Programme.

Basic in waste water treatment (BWWT)

The waste water training took place at Borcherds Quarry Waste Water treatment plant in Cape Town. We had three groups of students in waste who were very excited to start the basic course or were already having their advanced course. The students following the course Basic in waste water treatment learned to have a better understanding on the complete process involved in waste water treatment. Also, they shared their knowledge with students from other plants through discussions and assignments in the training. Students were very excited to learn from each other in this way. Furthermore the topics on ‘laws & regulations’ and ‘microbiology involved’ were very useful and often new information for the students. They learned for example more in-dept on what conditions you need for bacteria to grow, and how this differs within South Africa and the Netherlands. Through the basics of waste water treatment course, the trained staff of the City of Cape Town has now a better understanding of the whole cycle around waste water treatment process, why they do what they do in their daily job and how this fits in the bigger picture.

Nutrient Removal and Sludge Treatment (NRST)

The course Nutrient Removal and Sludge Treatment (NRST) was followed by 32 students as a follow up of the basics. In the NRST course included a lot of calculation assignments for which the students were working in duo’s to come to an answer. This was challenging and fun! The teachers were stimulating active participation through  giving the students the chance to stand in front of the classroom to write out the answers for the calculations and elaborate on this. In this way the attention level of the participants stayed high.

Basics of Drinking Water Production (BDWP)

The Basics of Drinking Water Production took place at Faure Water Treatment Plant in Cape Town. Two groups of in total 33 Participants have been trained. The participants were very excited to work together with colleagues from other treatment plants and sharing their experience and knowledge. The course finished with a multiple-choice assessment which created a bit of nervousness, but despite this the students showed to master the course content.

Concluding can be stated that we had a very successful week with many lessons learned. We look forward to the next training delivery in Cape Town later this year.