Supporting Capacity Development
The implementation of the IWRM concept does not only require the willingness, but also comprehensive knowledge of all people involved to introduce new approaches and measures of sustainable water management. Capacity development can not only create awareness and acceptance of integrated system solution but it also offers the opportunity to implement approaches in a sustainable way.
In this regard Germany is an ideal partner for Iran in many ways: it has great technology and innovation potential in the water sector and many years of experience in international training. Germany is one of the market leaders in the water sector, for example in the fields of measurement and control technology, and is even world market leader in wastewater technologies, plant and component engineering. Water is a core area for German development cooperation in 27 countries, the German government supports water related projects with around 400 million Euros per year, and they all include educational elements. Various BMBF or DWA scholarship programs support young international scientists and engineers.
Expanding skills for IWRM implementation
From the perspective of the educational field Iran faces two main challenges which are closely related: on the one hand many training courses do not adequately prepare the participants for solving practical problems, for example at wastewater treatment plants. On the other hand inflexible bureaucratic processes of training demand assessment and evaluation hamper efficient water management.
The aim of the project is therefore to address these challenges in two interrelated work packages: by establishing a German-Iranian Competence Center for Water and Wastewater Management (GICC) and by improving the overall vocational training system. By 2018 the GICC is supposed to be in its set-up stage, and the recommendations for the training system improvement are successfully incorporated into its day-to-day business.