Training for students in the frame of the project ‎“Water and Sanitation Safety Planning  in Romania, Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia (WatSanPlan)”‎, Funded by the Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, was held on October 22, 2021 in Aleksandrovac. There were 19 participants from different classes of the secondary school and four teacher who passed training for trainers held in June 2021. The training was held at the premises of the Secondary school in Aleksandrovac. The names of participants are not collected, taking into account data protection of minor students (ages 16-17).

Purpose of training: Increasing the knowledge of participants on the Water and Sanitation Safety Plan (WSSP), on ‎the role of WSSP and how to carry out a WSSP in their rural and semi-urban communities.

Before the training, consultation with teachers was held, in order to be prepared to participate actively in presentation and practical work with students. First part of the training was theoretical, where key words are explained (water safety, sanitation, water supply system, waste waters system…). The discussion and practical work started with mapping local community regarding available waters. Participants were divided into four groups: upper Župa, lower Župa, city center and city center surrounding. During the mapping, discussion was launched regarding the current situation on water in the municipality, from the students perspectives. The main findings are:

• students are very well informed and have sufficient knowledge about the situation regarding water and sanitation in own community
• students are also very interested to take part in any future activities in order to improve situation in the municipality regarding water safety and sanitation
• they are coming from different parts of municipality and well know the situation in the parts where they are living
• they shown very well knowledge also regarding the situation not only in Aleksandrovac municipality, but also they are interested what is going on in wider area (such is construction of Morava corridor, which affects Morava river basin, etc.)
• during this training, development of the Plan for water safety and sanitation started to be developed, one student is proposed and accepted to be a leader of the water group (Uroš Jović), two teachers will be also involved as mentors: Maja Stošić and Dragana Bogojević
• regarding the factory for the treatment of wastewaters from the municipality, which was planned to be built in the village Novaci, construction still does not started, because some of the administrative problems
• lack of the wastewater treatment is the main problem of this municipality, according to students opinion
• as practical exercise, students measured water quality from several water bodies, by nitrate tests and pH-meter
• next step is organization of the first official meeting of school water group, to discuss continuation of development of the Plan for water safety and sanitation for Aleksandrovac municipality