About forty delegates representing national water utilities of five French-speaking African countries (Benin, Cameroon, Guinea, Niger, Togo) - members of the African Water Association (AfWA) - took part in a three-day workshop from 11 to 13 June 2019 in Lomé, Togo, focusing on the ownership of the process of developing a laboratory technical management manual, said a Journalist from Savoir News, the Togolese News Agency.

Organized by AfWA in collaboration with Togolaise des Eaux (TdE) (the Togolese Water Authority) and with the financial support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), this meeting was part of the African Water Association's capacity building program in the water and sanitation sector (AfriCap). One of its objectives was to support water quality certification laboratories in the development of their laboratory technical management manuals.

At the opening of the workshop, Mr. Gbati Yawanke, Managing Director of TdE, explained that the laboratory is at the heart of the water treatment process. Indeed, the characteristics of the raw water enabling to define its treatment mode, as well as all the processes to produce drinking water (NDLR), are determined in the laboratory. The role of the laboratory in the water sector is therefore decisive both in terms of organization and management.

For Dr. Simeon Kenfack, Director of Programs at AfWA, a water utility cannot be successful if it cannot provide quality water. (...) When talking about quality, any quality process must start with the provision of a manual (...) that defines the procedures and tools that make it possible to verify, ensure and confirm this quality.

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