The third week of EJWP was hosted by the Isle Utilities Italian office located in Brescia. While not Italy’s most famous town, Brescia is as pretty as any Italian centuries-old community, full of beautiful little market squares, churches, and even a castle on top of a hill. Perfect setting for the evening relaxation at the end of each full work day, among the countless restaurants with delicious food and Italian wine.
The program kicked off on Monday 9th of December with the presentation of the 2 project results the teams had been working on for the past two months: the water systems of the future, commissioned by Water Authority Delfland and the Water Footprint of European Wine production, commissioned by Water Footprint Implementation. The teams got to learn about the challenges of creative group work and the barriers of language in sectors not traditionally cooperative at international scale.
The next two days the team followed an intensive training on intercultural communication and got to challenge themselves and their colleagues playing in and out of their personal and cultural character. With a mix of 7 nationalities it was fun to find out how much miscommunication can happen. This was also the first time the teams played team development games in a competitive manner, for that extra challenge.
Thursday brought us out on the field to visit the local wastewater treatment plant, managed by A2A water utility, which has functioned as a testing party for membrane technology. While Italy is usually associated with sun and warmth, in December in the northern town of Brescia we got to experience the first wastewater treatment plant visit in the snow! A big thank you to the local staff who guided us and explained everything while the snow was heavily coming down.
The second part of the day was dedicated to a masterclass on urban resilience.
The final day was dedicated to the start-up of the next batch of projects, carbon reduction in wastewater treatment commissioned by Welsh Water and urban resilience commissioned by Isle Utilities. After checking in with the respective project sponsors, and setting up an action plan, it was time to say goodbye and till next time in Wales!