WOPs Special Issue Journal: Principles and practices (2)

Water Operators’ Partnerships are increasingly recognized as instruments to strengthen operational capacities of water utilities and to foster knowledge exchange between utilities with the ultimate aim of expanding and improving the provision of water services to consumers. Recent programmes like the EU-WOP Programme, sustainable utility partnerships developed by the German Water Partnership or the WaterWorX Programme are illustrative of this growing recognition of WOPs. Contributing to the achievement of SDG target 6.1 figures prominently in these programmes.

At the same time, much of the literature on WOPs is either written in the context of the public versus private debate (where WOPs are presented as an alternative to PPPs) or has a strong case study focus that simply describes a particular WOP case study. What is missing is a more critical yet constructive analysis focused on understanding different dimensions and phenomena of WOPs and how such partnerships work in practice. Such a more critical perspective is necessary in order to further the discussion on WOPs as an instrument for improving service provision and, ultimately, to contribute to making such partnerships more effective.

During this session series following papers submitted to the special issue will be presented and discussed:

• Principles of WOPs:
• Building a partnership between mentor and mentee utility with a 3-step approach – Hamburg Wasser, KASHWASA, Miyahuna
• Cost-benefit analysis of the implementation of sustainable urban drainage system (SUDS) – Ajuntament de Barcelona, Engineers without Borders, Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research
• Water operator partnerships (WOPs) as an approach to engaging in sustainable operations of utilities and effective use of new assets. – Waternet, VEi Dutch Water Operators, World Bank
• Organisational change dynamics within Water Operators’ Partnerships: Appreciative Inquiry as an approach to stimulate sustainable uptake of capacity development activities – VEi Dutch Water Operators, Wageningen University and Research, Nijenrode University, Bayawan, Carcar and Toledo utilities
• The Weight of Relationships Between Partners for an Effective Collaboration in Capacity – Maria Pascual