Thursday, January 17, 2019 - 13:11
As the IWAMA project approaches its end this year, more and more outputs and accumulated knowledge become available for usage and application in the Baltic Sea Region – most of them will be presented during the Final Conference of the project. However, while it is crucial to organize international meetings and conferences for successfull exchange of experiences and learning from each other, it is of no less importance to provide updates on the local level. One of the bright examples of local knowledge and experience exchange organized by the Estonian Waterworks Association (EVEL) is their annual seminar launched in 2017.
Operators’ Experience – Putting Knowledge into Practice
In April 2017, Estonian Water Works Association organized a 2-days seminar “Operators’ Experience” for the water and wastewater plant operators from its member companies. In the end of 2018, a follow-up seminar was held where the main objective besides listening to interesting presentations was carrying out the first professional skills competition for the Estonian operators. The seminar was part of the training package provided through the IWAMA project that is aimed at introducing and implementing lifelong learning approach among the wastewater operators.
The first part of the seminar day was filled with presentations given by the water utility specialists based on their practical experience in the field. Industrial wastewater treatment at the plant receiving the highest pollution load in Estonia, matters of the work load depending on the size of the companies, and effective ways to pass suggestions from the operators as end-users to those who design the treatment plants – these and other topics were discussed throughout the programme of the event.
The day continued with the practical excercise: a professional skills competition was launched aiming at finding the most optimal technological solution for the earlier designed wood refinery. Participants of the competition were given a task of finding the best water and wastewater treatment technology to treat the influent and the pollution produced at the refinery, by applying the given input and output parameters.
Another competition for the seminar participants followed with the introduction of newly produced equipment; the competition required good manual skills and was won by the team from AS Tartu Veevärk.
The seminar ended with a hiking trip in the bog and a sauna arranged for the participants.
