Dutch students in town
By Tabisa Mntengwana
29 October 2009
NINE Dutch students are in town to undergo a four-week internship programme as part of Buffalo City’s partnership with the city of Leiden in The Netherlands.
The partnership was formed in 1998, and in the memorandum of understanding the two cities agreed to exchange knowledge through the input of technical and social expertise and training municipal personnel to improve their skills.
Hailing from Welland College, the visiting technical students will be working closely with Buffalo City’s engineering department and students from Walter Sisulu University. They will collect data of the stormwater drainage system and create a platform between local and regional stormwater authorities.
According to the municipality’s international relations and development co-operation manager, Darby Gounden, the aim of the project is to help Buffalo City with data collection in order to determine the extent and condition of the existing stormwater infrastructure.
It will also determine flood lines and establish the hydraulic capacity of major and minor drainage systems around the municipality, as well as give an accurate record of stormwater assets.
The stormwater project is one of three sub-projects that were proposed though the Buffalo City and Leiden partnership in 2005.
Reconstruction of the flood plain in Duncan Village, the clean up of streams and the drainage system in Duncan Village, and the establishment of stormwater by-laws and implementing a stormwater management system are the other two projects.
Gounden says: “The projects were targeted especially for Duncan Village with the aim to improve living conditions, establish a more favourable management of catchments, and increase awareness and the importance of keeping the drainage system unblocked.”
Awareness campaigns will help improve and preserve the environment, she explains.
The students arrived in Buffalo City on Monday, 26 October and will undertake a variety of activities while here, including checking the stormwater management systems and safety regulations while on the field, as well as have a cultural induction. “We will give the students a pleasurable time while they are here to share their skills with both Buffalo City employees and students from the local university.”
She adds that the field work and data collected will be used by Welland College as part of the students’ qualification requirements.
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