Bermuda College students interested in the trades and engineering have visited a hospital sewage treatment plant for an educational tour.

Bermuda Hospitals Board welcomed the students to the plant at the Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institute in Devonshire to mark of Facilities and Management Week.

Alan Gorbutt, BHB the assistant facilities manager at MWI, who organised the event, said: “Connecting with our community is important to us and, while a tour of a sewage treatment plant is unlikely to have wide appeal, we did feel it could be of interest to Bermuda College students who may be considering careers in the trades and engineering.”

Joseph Weeks, a technical education lecturer at the college, said the tour, conducted by Adam Diel, the general manager of Water Infrastructure Group, which manages the plant, was an opportunity for the students to see the practical side of the theory they learnt in the classroom.

Mr Weeks added: “Mr Diel not only gave a technically informative tour, he also highlighted that this type of work is in demand with very few, if any, Bermudians in the field or training for it.

“This knowledge is very valuable for our students and the exposure means they may now consider a career in a field that was previously not on their radar.”

The sewage treatment plant was installed in 2015. About 2,500 gallons of waste water is treated every day and waste water from toilets, sinks, showers and the kitchen, are processed there.

Grease and some other solids are removed before the water enters the plant through traps that are cleaned separately.

For more information on the work of the MWI Facilities Management team, see interviews with Mr Gorbutt here and Mr Simmons here.