Included as part of last year’s WorldSkills competition was a new demonstration of skills – Specialist in Water Technology – where 16 teams competed to solve problems using the new EDS Water Management modular learning system. The system, developed in conjunction with Festo Didactic South Africa as part of the GIZ/Festo water training project, is currently being piloted in South Africa. “It represents the core of a water and wastewater treatment plant and is a modular learning system developed to teach students about water supply and wastewater treatment,” explains Horst Weinert, manager, Festo Didactic South Africa.
The EDS Water Management system is equipped with industrial components and simulates the core processes of water and waste water plants, e.g. ion flocculation, chlorine dosage and measurement, sedimentation, drain control, aeration and more. Thanks to its industry-oriented design, the system makes it possible to explore the principles behind the collection, extraction, transport and treatment of water and wastewater. It also offers measurement and open and closed-loop control technology. Most of the components are the same as their real-life equivalents and the system is designed so that a certain amount of dirt is automatically added, which behaves in the same way as sludge particles that have to be fed back into the process after drying.
“South Africa is a unique contrast of First and Third World, which makes it a great place to test whether German technology can work in a developing country,” explains Weinert. The EDS allows students and employees of water and wastewater companies to learn about water purification, water supply, wastewater transport, wastewater treatment and energy optimisation. “We are working towards making this a new skill at the next WorldSkills in 2015. As the system was developed in South Africa, we hope to send a winning team to compete,” concludes Weinert.
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