- Home WWA ›
- Organisation ›
- News
News

Do you want to learn everything about the different process steps on a wastewater treatment plant? After completing this course you will understand the wastewater treatment process in practice. You will recognize how your actions influence the performance of your wastewater treatment plant. To make the course as effective as possible for you, we encourage you to share your own knowledge and experiences with the other participants.

In May 2021 an innovative set-up was installed in the Liesbeek River, Cape Town, to intercept and detect plastic as part of our Orange Knowledge Programme (OKP) ‘Bridging the water’. The OKP project aimed to bridge the gaps between theory & practice, research & implementation, education & workplace and engineers & operators by developing knowledge transfer and cooperation amongst stakeholders.

At the end of March 2022 Claudia Peters and Gabrielle Knufman from World Water Academy, together with Dutch Trainers Hans Mollen and Melanie Vermeeren, traveled to Durban and Cape Town, South Africa, to deliver two final training courses as part of the Orange Knowledge Project ‘Bridging the Water’. In this article Hans and Melanie share their experiences.

From March 7 till 10 we hosted the Drinkwater Water Treatment Training in Jordan. With this training, Al-Balqa Applied University and World Water Academy strengthen their partnership towards providing sustainable solutions to the challenges of the water sector in Jordan. The training is set up in collaboration with IHE Delft Institute for Water Education and is part of the Orange Knowledge Project WATRA.

In February World Water Academy and VEI (Vitens Evides International) collaborated to host water supply training in the Dutch Caribbean. Personnel of the drinking water bottling plants of Saba and St. Eustatius completed a three-day training on important aspects in the production, bottling, and distribution of drinking water. This was training to refresh their knowledge, but also to learn new techniques which ensure the quality of the water during the sampling process and the bottling process.

From 13 to 16 December a group of wastewater professionals from Amman, Jordan took part in the training “Wastewater treatment techniques”. The training by World Water Academy, set up in collaboration with IHE Delft Institute for Water Education and Al-Balqa’ Applied University, is part of the Orange Knowledge Project WATRA (WAter Treatment and Reuse in Agriculture) in Jordan.

In 2019 the Orange Knowledge Programme ‘Bridging the Water’ took off. The project, funded by Nuffic, is a collaboration between Dutch and South African partners to improve the skills and knowledge of water professionals in South Africa and to develop sustainable knowledge-exchange and collaboration.

The second interactive Masterclass Anammox was held on November 2nd, 2021. A total of 32 participants from South Africa and the Netherlands were eager to learn more about the Anammox process and its applications.

In November 2021 the second virtual living lab of the Liesbeek River in Cape Town took place, guided and organized by prof. Kevin Winter (UCT), Mariska Heijs (RUAS) and the OKP team. This year there was a special focus on plastic pollution in river systems. 12 Students from the Netherlands and 8 from South Africa co-created solutions to combat plastic pollution. They developed research questions and came up with innovative solutions to improve water quality in the Liesbeek river, but also elsewhere.

The training for Ekurhuleni Water Care Company (ERWAT) kicked off during October 2021. ERWAT water is responsible for 19 treatment plants. The ERWAT trainers and plant managers, Mr. Norman Mahlangu and Mr. Livhuwani Mathomu successfully completed the Training of Trainers programme in March 2021. As a result of this, they are now training ERWAT process controllers in the Basics of Wastewater Treatment course.