The USAID-funded Supporting Activities that Value the Environment (SAVE) program organized a two-week Train the Trainers (TOT) Program in the United States for a group of Cypriot water, geology and mining experts. Designed to expose the group to best practices and new approaches to water management—particularly as they relate to the case of Cyprus—the program included visits to Austin, Texas, and Denver, Colorado, where the group visited Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District, the City of Austin Water Department, Layne Drilling, the United States Geological Survey regional offices and laboratories, and Denver Arapaho Disposal Site and Landfill. In follow up to this training and as a compliment to SAVE’s ongoing work in capacity building, the TOT program participants will develop practical ways to apply and share their newly acquired skills, including through presentations on topics of particular interest such as dealing with iron bacteria contamination in wells.

Like all U.S.-funded programs in Cyprus, SAVE is aimed at facilitating reunification of the island, including through encouraging sustainable development and the sound management of critical resources like water.