Attending Waternet and Industrial water conferences

Last year we were represented by Celma and Noor in a couple of conferences. Let’s find out how did that go.

By Noor and Celma

Industrial Water 2018 – Frankfurt am Main – 27 – 29 November 2018

For the first time, a European forum that was used to discuss challenges in industrial water management and how can new strategies, developments and technologies make industrial water use more efficient was opened to other than European countries. It was an opportunity to learn about relevant topics along the industrial water value chains: from raw water to waste water treatment; from sensoring to digitization in industrial water management; from alternative water resources to zero liquid discharge and integrated management.

On the first day, after attending an interesting plenary talk on Industrial Water 4.0 – Perspectives and challenges of digitalisation for industrial water management and other related topics on Cooling water management I also presented my work on “Possibilities for Use of Reclaimed Water for Cooling at a Thermal Power Plant in Maputo”.


Noor presenting her work.

The second day I mostly attend the maintenance, wastewater technologies and integrated industrial water management sections talks and ended up the day with the Conference Dinner in the city of Frankfurt. In the last day my attention was more on wastewater treatment technologies and towards water loop closure. Most of the cases presented were of developed countries were attention is on management of wastes that results from the treatment, systems digitalization and resources recovery.

Waternet conference – Livingston – 31 October to 02 November 2018

We arrived at Harry Muaza international airport on 30th October at 12:30 in Livingstone to participate at 19th Waternet symposium. The first we observed was cleanness of town as we were moving to the Avani Victoria Fall Hotel, where we were hosted. At the entrance to the hotel we had a warm welcome by the one of the tallest animal in the world, a giraffe at such a beautiful and pleasant place to be. The weather was good and we spend a nice afternoon in company of antelopes and zebras that were walking around. Our first lunch, we had the local and typical food from the falls. This was a taste and delicious bream grilled fish from Zambezi river accompanied by nchima a similar dish we have in central part of Mozambique.


Celma and Noor presenting their work at Waternet.

The next day (31st October) , was the kick out of the conference. This was quit long has we had a very loaded program that ended up with a cocktail. The program started with speeches from the central government in Zambia the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Water Development, Sanitation and Environmental Protection Bishop Dr. Edward Chomba. followed by plenaries.


Look, antelopes and zebras!

The second day (1st November) we had a very interesting episode in the morning when a monkey holding his baby entered in our room and stolen some packages of sugar and powder milk. We then had our presentations and attended some other nice talks. Celma presented her topic on “Use of (partially) treated municipal wastewater in irrigated agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa: potentials and constraints” and Noor presented two topics “Assessing water reclamation potential in cities: identifying gaps, opportunities and priorities for Maputo city” and “Study of Parameters of Concern in Reclaimed Water for Construction Industry in Maputo, Mozambique”. The presentations went well and interesting discussions were raised that will improve the content of topics.


Look, a monkey!

The last day (2nd November) was again a very busy day where shared interesting ideas on a special session dedicated to Mozambique with the topic: Towards Sustainable water management in Mozambique. The afternoon we had opportunity to visit the 7th wonder of the world, the Victoria Falls. In the afternoon, we had a field trip to measure water flows on Zambezi river.


Field trip.

Our tip back was on Saturday (3rd November) and we are thankful for the great opportunity to participate in this conference, we had chance to know other projects and to meet and discuss with people of different background and working experiences.