Allstars and Pumpis lead the field

Hennef. The best sewage treatment plant and sewer professionals come from Stuttgart. The “Allstars” team from Stuttgart’s urban drainage company SES managed to take first place in the category sewage treatment plants at the fourth World Water Skills hosted by the German Association for Water, Wastewater and Waste (DWA). The “Pumpis”, also from SES, were the best in the sewer competition. Teams from Los Angeles and Bonn as well as Cologne and Nuremberg were able to win silver and bronze in the respective categories.

The World Water Skills aim to encourage professional motivation, set quality standards and, at the same time, promote continuous further training. “The profession of sewage engineering technician is versatile and challenging”, says Rüdiger Heidebrecht, Head of the Training and International Cooperation Department at the DWA and the initiator of the competition. The activities involve great responsibility for the environment and also for valuable high-tech facilities. Only those who are up-to-date, says the DWA’s training expert, will be able to meet the requirements.

Best performance: fast, accurate and safe

The sewage professionals from Stuttgart asserted themselves against a total of 15 teams, including squads from Egypt, Jordan and the United States. They competed in the four categories Occupational health and safety, Repair and maintenance, Measuring, controlling, regulating and operational monitoring and Process control or opt for two disciplines. The sewer professionals had to demonstrate a perfect shaft entry while ensuring the necessary safety. They also had an agitator to service and repair. The sewage treatment plant professionals had to show that they are able to operate measuring, control and regulating devices quickly and correctly and to monitor process operations. For this, they had to depict the flowchart of a sewage treatment plan with magnetic cards on a whiteboard and detect and eliminate an operational disruption. In addition, each team was able to secure an extra point at a 3-D station. For this, a tour of a sewage treatment plant was simulated with the aid of virtual reality glasses. Speed, accuracy and compliance with the applicable safety regulations were assessed.

The World Water Skills were held during the industrial fair IFAT from 14 to 18 May 2018 in Munich.