The Bahamas is set to welcome more than 200 participants from as many as 30 countries in the region, as the Water and Sewerage Corporation (WSC), in conjunction with the Caribbean Water and Wastewater Association (CWWA), will be hosting the CWWA’s 21st Annual Conference and Exhibition and the First Caribbean Water and Wastewater Congress.
This year’s conference will be held October 1-5, 2012, at the Atlantis Resort, Paradise Island, under the theme “Waste and Waste Management in the Caribbean … Real Strategies and Solutions”.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Works and Urban Development Philip Davis is the host minister for the event.
According to a WSC statement, the Conference seeks to highlight strategies and solutions to the “myriad of challenges” that the Caribbean water, wastewater and solid waste sectors now face.
The conference also presents opportunities for networking and establishing new partnerships, so that all persons in the region can benefit from each other’s successful experiences, the statement added.
The CWWA is a regional non-governmental umbrella organisation representing professionals and related agencies of all types in the water, wastewater and solid waste sectors. An Act of Parliament in Trinidad & Tobago established the organisation in 1991.
According to CWWA, the event is an opportunity for participants to be exposed to real strategies and solutions; and at a single event be exposed to “a mix of sector professionals, engineers, industry leaders, CEOs, and ministers of government and high-level dignitaries from across the Caribbean Region, Latin America, North America, and Europe as they converge in the Caribbean.”
The event will not only feature seminars, workshops, exhibitions and technical sessions, it will also consist of regional leadership conclaves and roundtables, field trips and technical tours, networking and cultural events.
About nine schools from across New Providence will also take part in the conference by viewing the exhibitions and learning from presentations.
The Opening Ceremony will take place on Monday, October 1, beginning a 6 p.m. Prime Minister of The Bahamas Perry Christie, Deputy Prime Minister Davis and a number of Cabinet Ministers from throughout the region are expected to attend.
The event also features the CWWA/Global Water Partnership High Level Sessions that will bring together ministers with responsibility for the water and wastewater sectors and related agencies throughout the Caribbean for one and half days of discussions, on October 4 and 5.
On the evening of October 4, there will be the CWWA Banquet and Awards Ceremony that will also feature sector recognitions.
“It is a unique opportunity for Caribbean engineering professionals to meet, to address other regional issues such as free trade and, of course, the much greater threat of climate change, which is of particular concern to Small Island Developing States – which applies to all in the region,” the WSC press statement noted.
For more information on the Conference, visit www.cwwa2012.com.
By Eric Rose
Bahamas Information Services
