Water Treatment Group, Water and Environmental Engineering, Nagasaki University: TICAD 7 and summer internship in Yokohama

The history was made yet again from the 28^th to the 30^th of August 2019 as we witnessed over 10 000 participants composed of heads of states and governments from the 53 African countries, 52 development partner countries, and 108 international organizations, public and private sector groups, and NGOs gather in Japan at Yokohama for the seventh episode of what is famously known as the “Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 7). I was privileged to also be in attendance not only as a beneficiary of the ABE initiative scholarship program born from TICAD 5 in 2013 but a trainee of Hinode Sangyo co.ltd as well - a company which specializes in the treatment of wastewater.

The theme of the conference was about the advancement of Africa`s development through human resource development, technology, and innovation. We listened with enthusiasm the presenters as they tabled the progress made so far in as far as the topic is concerned and their strategies towards achieving same. Of utmost importance was also the rich networking platform aimed at exchanging knowledge and ideas on many different aspects of global concern.

During plenary session

Listening to presentations by heads of states and governments from Africa

Hinode Sangyo booth during TICAD7

Networking time with colleagues and government officials from Lesotho

The venue where the conference was held

On one hand, the internship program was highly fruitful as we had hands-on experience in the operation of the company`s wastewater treatment facility. We also took several excursions to other wastewater treatment plants such as Morinaga wastewater treatment plant as well as municipal wastewater treatment plants in Chiba prefecture which use the CAS system. The pictures below show some of the highlights.