WOPing Success: Momentum Builds for the WOP SEE Platform

The International Association of Water Service Companies in the Danube River Catchment Area (IAWD) has entered into cooperation with UN-Habitat/GWOPA, the Global Water Operators’ Partnerships Alliance—an international network that supports water operators through peer support exchanges between two or more partners in Water Operator Partnerships (WOPs). 

IAWD is under an Agreement of Cooperation promoting the WOP approach in the Danube region, seeking partnerships to launch a Regional WOP Platform for South East Europe, and activities to this end are gathering momentum. 

An introductory webinar in May drew 30 water utility managers, water utility professionals, IAWD utility members, and GWOPA members with a keen interest in GWOPA in general, the planned WOP SEE platform, and best practice examples of WOP platforms from other regions.

A session on “Utility cooperation in the Danube region and beyond” was held in the frame of the Utility Benchmarking Program workshop of the Danube Hub end of May featuring among others case studies on EU WOP presented by Aqua Publica representative Marine Boulard and the WOP example Budapest-Pakistan introduced by Rita Studnicki from Budapest Waterworks.