On the latest episode of Making Waves, we bring you a dynamic session from the WWETT Show 2023: “Water and Wastewater Operators Are Making a Difference by Helping Operators and Utilities in Developing Countries.” 

The speakers shared their experiences in rebuilding utilities post-disaster and the type of training, mentoring, and other projects in which operators and other water professionals have volunteered. They also discussed a project in partnership with Rotary International to bring potable water to all Haitians.

The panelists for the session were: Valerie Jenkinson, Founder and Chair at Operators Without Borders (OWB); Jason Mank, Board Member and Assistant Chair Deployment Committee at Ontario Clean Water Agency; and Ian Mcilwham, Compliance Manager at Durham Region Water and Wastewater Utility. 

The speakers shared their experiences in rebuilding utilities post-disaster and the type of training, mentoring, and other projects in which operators and other water professionals have volunteered. They also discussed a project in partnership with Rotary International to bring potable water to all Haitians. 

Here’s a sneak peek into the discussion:

Jenkinson set the stage by speaking about the humble origins of Operators Without Borders. Having worked in the Caribbean for about a decade, she was very familiar with the utilities there and wished to help after the devastation of Hurricanes Maria and Irma in 2017. While at that year’s Caribbean Water & Wastewater conference, she learned that Dominica’s national water and wastewater utility especially needed assistance—in particular, that they could use some people to help them rebuild. 

The following week at the Canadian Water & Wastewater Conference, Jenkinson gave a speech about the situation in Dominica, and the conference organizers also helped her do some fundraising. “We had a huge number of people say, ‘I’ll go, but I can’t go right now. But we had three people who said they could go [now], and we raised enough money to send them.” 

It quickly became apparent to Jenkinson that it would make sense to create an ongoing organization to help in these sorts of circumstances, and OWB was born. “We had a two-fold objective: to help water and wastewater utilities in developing countries to recover after disasters, and let’s provide training completely free-of-charge.”

Mank went on to share about his experience as one of the first OWB volunteers to go to Dominica. “We went in about three months after the disaster, and you could see that every building had been touched by it. When we got there, all of the wastewater systems had been shut down, and they had lost a lot of their water systems as well.” He went with a team of two other volunteers who assessed the status of the island’s infrastructure and, within two weeks, got pump stations and treatment plants back up and running. “I had so many people come up to me expressing gratitude,” Mank noted. 

Jenkinson then spoke about OWB’s projects in Haiti, to help increase capacity and bring potable water to all Haitians. “They were having non-revenue water leakages of 90%. But, by implementing the training that we did, the non-revenue water is down to 42%, and we’re going for less than 30%, which makes it sustainable.” She also noted that OWB hopes to have boots on the ground in Turkey within the coming months, and that the organization ichris continuing to help Ukrainians from afar. 

Listen to the full episode here. 

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