Training Programme on Mainstreaming Water-Energy Nexus in Wake of Climate Change

Date: November 26-29, 2019

Venue: Anil Agarwal Environment Training Institute, Nimli, Rajasthan

Water team, CSE in association with International Water Association (IWA) organised the first of its training on "Mainstreaming Water-Energy Nexus in the Wake of Climate Change" from 26-29 November at AAETI. 

This training programme was basically designed for targeted participants from utilities, who were involved in planning, designing, execution and monitoring of water supply and sewerage systems.The main focus of the training wasto understand the importance of water-energy nexus in utility sector aiming for a water prudent and carbon neutral cities. This was coupled with the use of the computer based Energy and Carbon Performance Assessment (ECAM) tool and implementation of the WaCCliM Roadmap and approach to support water/wastewater utilities. The ECAM tool enables utilities to quantify their Greenhouse Gas Emissions and contributions to Nationally Determined Contributions and offers solutions for reducing emissions from energy use and water/wastewater management. ECAM helps link monitoring, reporting and verification of mitigation actions in the water sector to the national level.  By using this tool, water supply and sewerage boards can save a substantial amount throughout abstraction, water supply and water treatment on their electricity consumption and expenditure. 

This training was attended by the distinguished officials from Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board, Delhi Jal Board, UP Jal Nigam, Kerala Water Authority and PHED Rajasthan along with the academicians and consultants. 

The training kick-started on 26th November with room mapping exercise in an innovative yet enjoyable manner, Ice breaking session and a presentation about “Training background, aim and objectives” by Dr MahreenMatto.

All the participants from various utilities were given a chance to present about opportunities and challenges for Energy Efficiency in their utilities. This session not only gave them a chance to showcase the status of their utilities but also helped them to understand the initiatives taken by other utilities towards energy efficiency. 

Mr Pradeep Kumar, International Water Energy Consultant, described about "Concept of Watergy and Legal outline for Water-Energy Efficiency at municipal level". In his view "energy efficiency is not only about changing the pumps but to have an overall look of the system". The day ended with a presentation from Mr Rajiv Kumar, AIILSG on "The Energy audits and tools used for water efficiency at the municipal level". He described about the approach used for water audits and its linkages with energy efficiency.

The day 2 of the training was mainly focused on "Sustainability of energy efficient systems and introduction of the concept of climate change and GHG assessment". The day commenced with early morning trek. SubsequentlyMr MN Thippeswamy, Ex Chief Executive, Engineer, BWSSB conducted the session on "Sustainability of energy efficient systems in municipal sector: Case study of Bangalore water supply and sewerage board (BWSSB)". His experience on implementation of energy efficiency features in BWSSB helped participants to understand the context in a better way. Rest of the sessions were conducted by Mr Jose Porro, IWA Consultant which included "Introduction about WaCCliM roadmap and ECAM tool". These sessions were complimented with hands on experience with the tool and interactive exercises. Later, AAETI green features tour wasconducted to expose the participants to the green features of the campus.

The day3 of training was focussed on hands on experience on the ECAM tool. The day started with recap through interactive assessment and quiz. Later Mr Porro continued with further exploration of ECAM tool. The sessions were conducted on GHG assessment in ECAM Tool, applicability of tool in water efficiency and sludge management and ECAM: Opportunities and solutions, pump efficiency opportunities, data management for baseline and monitoring and GHG reduction options.

The last day of the trainingwas dedicated to ‘Do it Yourself’ final exercise on ECAM where participantsworked in groups to come up with answers on various questions like Identify opportunities for improvement, finance, monitoring and verify GHG emission reduction. At last the training programme was wrapped-up with felicitation and participant’s feedback on how the learnings can be taken forward and suggestions.