Monday, August 4 2008

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Jan Janssens, World Bank Institute Consultant, who spoke on World Water Consumption/Demands....

With water listed as a top priority on Government’s agenda of deliverables to developed nation status in 2020, Public Utilities Minister, Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, opened a two-day Technology Transfer Conference, July 22-23, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Port-of-Spain, titled ‘‘Strategies for Best Practices within the Water and Wastewater Sector’’. The conference was organised by the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA), with Genivar as the lead facilitator, to benefit WASA employees, its stakeholders and the regional water sector.

Genivar is the company responsible for the development of a Water and Wastewater Master Plan and Policy for Trinidad and Tobago under the terms of an agreement with WASA — the Master Plan is due in October, 2008. An essential element of the agreement is training and technology transfer.

In delivering the feature address at the Technology Transfer Conference, Abdul-Hamid stated that in order to ensure we get the best technology for Trinidad and Tobago, we must know what are the cutting edge technologies available on the market. And that once we invest in the new technology, it is also necessary that citizens are trained to become experts in the operation and maintenance of this technology.

WASA CEO, Errol Grimes, also noted that the use of the most modern techniques and technologies is important and that what is equally important is training and the transfer of technology. He told delegates, ‘‘We have to ensure that after the process is over, after the consultants are finished, our staff has the capacity to deal with a first world and first class WASA.’’

The conference, the first of its kind to be undertaken locally, featured presentations from world-renowned speakers and international experts on a range of topics including ‘‘Tariffs around the World’’, ‘‘World Water Consumption Demands’’, ‘‘Wastewater Reuse’’, ‘‘Climate Change’ and ‘Desalination’’.

On day one of the conference, Mike Fortin, of Genivar highlighted the need to improve service levels before increasing rates and having the increase commensurate with service improvements. On day two, Jans Janssens of the World Bank discussed ‘‘World Water Consumption Demands’’ where he indicated that we are way past the argument of “whether to privatise or not”, and that rather the issue is governance and the delivery of service. He also indicated that metering is absolutely necessary.

Nicholas Cooper of Metcalf & Eddy presented on ‘‘Wastewater Reuse’’ and gave an overview of reuse methods around the world. He reported on direct and indirect reuse in countries such as Namibia and Singapore. The information shared was informative and supplemented with visual and interactive presentations.