The IDIWATER project held a coordination and technical training meeting in Gran Canaria with third-country partners, within the framework of its participation in the Bridge to Africa event.
The event brought together 300 international experts in the Canary Islands to discuss challenges, opportunities, and solutions related to shared development between the archipelago and the African continent.
The visiting partners were Mohamed Moustapha Dieme, from the Université Assane Seck de Ziguinchor (UASZ), Senegal, and Jorge Tavares, from the Universidade de Cabo Verde (UNICV). During the event, they presented, respectively, the Inter-African Master’s Degree in Water Treatment Technologies, an initiative aimed at strengthening academic and technical capacities in West Africa through specialized training and university cooperation, and the progress achieved to date in the installation of an autonomous desalination plant for agricultural purposes on the island of Santiago (Cape Verde), also designed as a platform for the training and research of students and researchers from the country’s university.
Within the framework of the project, other activities of the DESAL+ LIVING LAB platform were also addressed, with the participation of Raquel Garrido, from the Technological Institute of the Canary Islands (ITC), who presented the IDIWATER Acceleration Programme, as well as Pedro Cabrera, from ULPGC, who presented the tool developed under the IDIWATER project for the optimal operation of the LAS PALMAS III desalination plant, which has a production capacity of 80,000 m³/day.
That same afternoon, a technical coordination meeting was held at the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria headquarters of the Technological Institute of the Canary Islands (ITC), with the participation of other third-country partners online, including Courfia Diawara, also from UASZ, and Emmanuel Obuobie, from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research – Water Research Institute (CSIR-WR) of Ghana, in addition to representatives from ITC and ULPGC. During this session, progress on several strategic project tasks in the African continent was reviewed, enabling participants to share experiences and define the next steps.
The following day, the visiting partners toured the facilities of the ITC’s DESAL+ Living Lab platform in Pozo Izquierdo, where they received technical training from experts of the ITC Water Department, focused on pilot desalination and brine valorisation plants.
The visit of the UASZ and UNICV representatives reinforces the IDIWATER project’s commitment to international cooperation, knowledge transfer, and the development of innovative solutions to guarantee sustainable access to water in African and Macaronesian regions.
The IDIWATER Project, co-financed at 85% by FEDER funds through the Interreg MAC 2021–2027 Programme, is integrated into the DESAL+ Living LAB Platform.
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