Join the Reef Resilience Network for a mentored version of the course starting on November 1, 2021, and gain direct access to leading wastewater pollution experts and practitioners through live webinars and an online course room. The mentored online course will take approximately 5 hours to complete. Upon completion of the lessons and the course survey, you’ll be able to download a Certificate of Completion.
Around the world, wastewater pollution is caused by a lack of sanitation and poor management of wastewater. 80% of global wastewater–which includes human sewage–is discharged into the environment without treatment, releasing an array of harmful contaminants into the ocean and causing direct harm to people and coral reefs.
The new Wastewater Pollution Online Course is designed to help marine managers and practitioners understand how wastewater pollution threatens ocean and human health and what strategies and solutions are available to mitigate wastewater pollution in the ocean. The course incorporates new science, case studies, and management practices described in the Wastewater Pollution Online Toolkit into two self-paced lessons.
Course Outline
Lesson 1: Wastewater Pollution Impacts and Treatment Systems – introduces how wastewater pollution enters the marine ecosystem and the effects of certain pollutants on human and marine life. This lesson also provides an overview of commonly used wastewater treatment systems, including centralized and decentralized wastewater treatment systems.
Lesson 2: Addressing Wastewater Pollution – describes an approach for developing a water quality monitoring program to help identify wastewater pollution; and how nature-based solutions, improvements to treatment system technologies, and new resource recovery systems can improve wastewater treatment and the quality of water. This lesson also provides guidance on how to collaborate and communicate with stakeholders and other groups to mitigate ocean wastewater pollution.
This course is hosted by the Reef Resilience Network in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program, and the Ocean Sewage Alliance.
