The institutional delegation was composed of representatives from Dominica (DOWASCO) and St Lucia (WASCO), the Executive Director of the Caribbean Association for Water and Sanitation (CAWASA), and the Directorates General of the International Office for Water and the ODE Martinique. The technical delegation was made up of engineers from the International Office for Water (OiEau), the main operator of the project, scientists from INRAE and the engineer in charge of the project from ODE Martinique.
From June 21st to June 24th, CARIBSAN organised a face-to-face training in Martinique on treatment wetlands for urban wastewater treatment in tropical context.
This training for sanitation professionals coming from the English-speaking partner countries of the project gathered together in Fort-de-France a delegation of 17 water sanitation technicians and engineers from WASCO (Saint Lucia) and DOWASCO (Dominica). They were welcomed and trained by trainers from the International Office for Water, based in metropolitan France, and the Martinique Water Office. This week fully demonstrated the strong interest of partners for further reinforcing their cooperation and continuing sharing knowledge and skills on treatment wetlands.
On the agenda of this busy week: theoretical training sessions on sanitation issues, wastewater characterisation, and treatment wetlands on mornings, coupled with practical work on afternoons. The participants had the opportunity to visit and do practical work on two constructed wetland wastewater treatment plants of Martinique – La Taupinière and Bords de l’Etang treatment plants – to put into practice the knowledge acquired.
CARIBSAN is a Caribbean cooperation project that aims to disseminate constructed wetlands as a viable sanitation solution for the Caribbean, in particular by training different audiences on this technology. This capacity building allows Caribbean sanitation actors to make well-informed choices and to broadly deploy the solution.
