Project kick-off took place in Bangladesh between 12-16 February 2017. Team members from Deltares, Akvo, ECL, and ITN-BUET met to discuss the tasks, assignments, expected completion dates, and other logistics during that week.
Meetings were also held with two local river watchdog committees, with the one from Bisnandi Union Parisad on 12 February 2017 and the one from Piruzpur UP Union Parisad on 16 February 2017. Members of these watchdog committees, as well as other members of the community, will be selected and trained to carry out the water quality monitoring.
The 2nd mission of the trip took place from 17-21 September 2017. The schedule for the week was as follows:
- Sunday, September 17th:
- 9:00: meeting at ITN-BUET to discuss ISWAM activities (translation, support during FEWS training, organizing other events to raise awareness about and build momentum around the project)
- 11:30: meeting at DoE with Mr. Akhand to discuss logistics for training event and other project updates
- 19:00: meeting with Peter de Vries from the Embassy of the Netherlands in Bangladesh to discuss ongoing projects in Bangladesh and opportunities
- Monday, September 18th and Tuesday, September 19th: FEWS training at DoE
- Wednesday, September 20th: kick-off water quality monitoring (pH) at Bisnondi Union Parisad (UP)
- Thursday, September 21st: kick-off water quality monitoring (pH) at Piruzpur UP
A short summary of both the FEWS training and the kick-off days for water quality monitoring are provided below.
FEWS training 18-19 September 2017
The training was opened by introductory words from the Director General, Md. Raisul Alam Mondal. Other senior officials, including the Deputy Director of the Dhaka laboratory and Project Director of the ISWAM project, Md. Mustafizur Rahman Akhand, attended the opening session and introduction to FEWS, including a live demonstration of the FEWS Bangladesh system.
The course then began, focusing on practical exercises where participants could practice realistic use cases, such as importing and visualizing data. By the end of the first day, participants had grasped the main concepts from the demonstration use cases, and requested to practice importing additional data from the Turag River. This was prepared prior to the start of the second day of training. Training on the second day began with a recap of the first day and the capabilities of the FEWS system. This was attended by the Director of the Dhaka laboratory, Dr. Md. Sohrab Ali and the Deputy Director of the Dhaka laboratory, Md. Mustafizur Rahman Akhand, as well as all of the course participants. The participants then worked through an exercise to correctly format and import data from the Turag River for January 2017. In total, 16 DoE staff members completed the FEWS training. This includes staff working in enforcement, senior chemists (from both the main office in Dhaka and from regional offices), and laboratory assistants.
Kick-off for water quality monitoring and refresher training at Bisnondi UP (20 September 2017) and Piruzpur UP (21 September 2017)
The kick-off for water quality monitoring had three main parts:
- Distribution of monitoring materials
- Refresher training
- Location selection for each enumerator
