11th Eastern European Young Water Professionals (YWP)

11th Eastern European Young Professionals Conference

On October 1 - 5, the 11th International IWA Eastern European Young Water Professionals Conference was held in Prague. In addition to several universities, the conference was also held under the patronage of SOVAK ČR and CzWA.

The conference program started with the Water Utility 2030 workshop led by MSc. Hasenleithner, CEO of Energie AG Bohemia, who was one of the conference sponsors. Furthermore, Utility Benchmarking and How to present workshops and excursions to Central WWTP in Prague was held before the main program of the conference.

Participants of the conference met on 2 October at an informal party, where the conference participants were welcomed by the chairman of the program committee prof. Ing. Dr. Wanner, DrSc. Ing. Maryna Feierabend, Vice-Rector of UCT Prague prof. Dr. RNDr. Matějka and representatives of YWP CZ Ing. Petra Vachová and Ing. Filip Harciník. The opening ceremony took place on the morning of 3 October in the large hall of the CTU Congress Center in Masaryk Dormitory, and in addition to the above-mentioned, the chairman of the CzWA Committee, doc. Ing. David Stransky, Ph.D. and representatives of sponsoring companies.

The conference was attended by nearly 200 participants (195) not only from Eastern Europe, as the conference title might seem. In addition to Europeans, there were also representatives from Australia, Mexico, Brazil, South Korea, South Africa or India. The main program of the conference was divided into two parallel sections within two days - drinking water and wastewater. Many interesting lectures were heard, including Czech and Slovak representation. 58 posters were also presented, the authors of which had the possibility of a quick, three-minute presentation.

At the conference, the best lecture from each section and the best poster were selected by program committee representatives. There was also a Czech and Slovak representation - the award for the best lecture in the Drinking Water section was received by Ing. Ronald Zakhar from STU Bratislava with a lecture Comparison of Different Adsorption Materials for Pentavalent Arsenic Removal from Drinking Water and Award for Best Poster Ing. Vojtěch Kouba from UCT Prague with poster Pilot-scale experiences with partial nitritation treatment anaerobically pre-treated sewage. The winners will be able to attend the next annual conference, which will be held in the capital of Latvia, Riga, free of charge.

The last day of the conference included an excursion to the Podolí Water Treatment Plant and a tour of the Prague center. The social program of the conference consisted of a gala dinner during a cruise on the Vltava River and the second evening the participants had the opportunity to dine in the restaurant of the Strahov Monastery.

The conference was also the culmination of the activities of the Czech chapter YWP so far when the official registration of the Czech chapter YWP in the International Water Association IWA was announced during the conference.