 The second workshop for the development of wastewater guidelines in St. Lucia has taken place, marking a significant step forward in the comprehensive initiative, aimed at enhancing wastewater management practices on the island. The workshop held as part of the Global Environment Fund crouplest project, focused on validating and refining the draft wastewater guidelines developed during the first workshop. The primary goal of the second workshop was to involve stakeholders from multiple sectors, presenting the draft guidelines for their feedback and validation, with participants from fields such as agriculture, water resources, hospitality, and youth, among others, ensuring a comprehensive and inclusive approach to wastewater management. Consultants attached to the Waste Water Management Guidelines project, Gordon Wyke, explained that this collaborative approach ensures that the guidelines align with the practical needs and requirements of the users, effectively guiding them in sustainable wastewater management practices. It is a complementary document to what is existing in the island, in terms of legislation, regulations, standards, and so on. So what it's going to hopefully do is have a document that anybody who seeks to be involved in this particular sector, be it from the institution, a regulator, or somebody implementing a wastewater facility, a simpler septic tank, or a more sophisticated, smaller-scale facility, they can look at this document and be able to get some guidelines for many different things. There's what we call a sanitation value chain, where we look at the collection, we look at the conveyance, we look at the treatment, we look at the user disposal, and along that chain, we give them guidelines as to how they can operate, what somebody best practices, somebody information to do the very best of that they can in terms of creating their wastewater system. The proposed wastewater guidelines cover various aspects of the sanitation value chain, including collection, conveyance, treatment, and disposal, offering practical guidance and best practices for each stage. Water Resource Specialists of the Water Resource Management Agency, Miguel Montut, highlighted that moving forward, the success of the workshop series will contribute to the development of a final set of comprehensive wastewater guidelines. These guidelines will serve as a valuable tool for individuals, regulators, and institutions engaged in wastewater management activities. This activity is an activity with stem from a previous initiative which we had where we looked at where we developed a draft set of a draft wastewater policy and strategic plan, and one of the recommendations from that document was to develop a wastewater master plan. So we are not quite there, so we are hoping that the guidelines would be sort of a precursor to look at actually developing a broader master plan, and also there might be opportunities to actually mobilize more resources for project implementation within the wastewater sector. We know it's definitely a sector in need of attention. The collaborative efforts of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security, and Rural Development, stakeholders, experts, and organizations involved in the project underscores the commitment to sustainable wastewater management in St Lucia. As the project progresses, it is expected to not only enhance local wastewater practices, but also serve as a model for similar initiatives, promoting the well-being of communities and the environment. From the Communications Unit of the Ministry of Agriculture, I am Anisia Antoine reporting.