EJWP2 participants are gearing up for their 7th training week beginning next Monday the 19 September. Partner organization De Watergroep, based in Leuven, Belgium, will host the group from countries including Belgium, France, Germany, Serbia and the Netherlands during their week of hands-on workshops, masterclasses and training sessions.
Water sector officials will share their expertise on digital water and hybrid water models, and EJWP specialized trainer Jennifer Cronick will lead participants through interactive sessions on conflict management and dealing with complexity. Field visits will include to the Stella Artois brewery – noting that water comprises about 90% of beer volume and much of production – and to Park Abbey for a “from holy water to drinking water” tour of a laboratory and production facility.
EJWP2 participant Borko Radivojevic, a hydraulic engineer at Consult Biro in Serbia, said, “I’m really looking forward to the masterclasses on digital water and hybrid water models, and the field visit to compare processes of purification with methods in my country, which is not in the EU.”
Participants will also present and evaluate their project results on Towards an inclusive water-smart society: Creating a Roadmap to the Future Workplace of European Water, and launch a new project focusing on industrial water, with EJWP partner organization DECHEMA from Germany. “My aim is to be a good host for an interesting training week. Collaborative projects help us get to know the other organizations & their different approaches, which is valuable in implementation,” said Benjamin Hermans, a Process Engineer at De Watergroep and EJWP2 participant.
The final training week for EJWP2 will be held in December in Frankfurt, Germany. The group by that time will have completed seven collaborative projects over a range of themes on water, community applications and pollutants. “I’m looking forward to this new training week full of joy and educational moments,” said Merel Mostert, EJWP2 participant with Delfland in the Netherlands, “Through our EJWP journey, we’ve created a hard-working team with very different backgrounds. We’ve become flexible in projects and are more open to new ways of thinking and working together.”
De Watergroep is the largest drinking water company in Flanders. More than 1,470 employees supply water through a network of over 32,000 km to 177 municipalities of around 3 million customers and hundreds of companies.