Training Field Assistants for water quantity auditing at carwash stations

I organized a training programme for a team of Field Assistants to assist in data collection for the water quantity auditing phase of the project. These are mostly Civil Engineering students from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology who have just completed their undergraduate degree and awaiting their graduation. They are very smart guys who are dedicated to the task at hand and can think on their feet to find solutions to diverse challenging scenarios thrown at them. Due to their engineering background, training them was easy and the training session was fun since they contributed fantastic ideas to make the field data collection very easy. They suggested innovative ways of making the data collection way easier using the field data collection forms. After the training session we went to the field to try out our methodology and make the necessary review. It was a great time with these young and brilliant minds.
What do we intend to achieve with this? We are determining the flow rates of the spray wands used to wash vehicles using graduated buckets of known volumes and stop watches. With the flow rates known, we can then determine how much water is used to wash different types of vehicles considering the time period within which the spray wands are used. For car wash stations using manual washing method, that is those without spray wands, we provided them with graduated buckets of known volumes. With these volumes known, we can determine how much water is used to wash the various types of vehicles considering the number of buckets each time. Eventually, we will be able to tell how much water is actually used to wash different types of vehicles and then estimate the total volume of water consumed daily at the car washing stations. This will give an idea of how much wastewater will be generated from the car washing stations each day in order to inform the sizing of holding tanks for the wastewater recycling system.
Kudos to all Field Assistants on the project. It’s great to have you on board!