Knowledge Management of WOPping Water Operators

Many water operators in developing countries face serious knowledge and capacity-related challenges that lead to poor service delivery. Water Operators' Partnerships (WOPs) are used as a mechanism to strengthen the capacity of water opera­tors for improved performance, by transferring new knowledge from mentoring water operators to mentee water operators.This study investigates knowledge management processes of water operators and the factors influencing these processes. A secondary objective explores the extent to which water operators implement knowledge management processes depending on their role in WOPs (i.e., mentor, mentee or both) and their degree of read­iness to do so.The study uses a qualitative case study approach, analysing nine water operators in Africa, Europe and South America involved in WOPs.The diverse range of cases encompasses public and private water utilities varying in size and age. Additionally, the selected operators play and have played different roles in WOPs (i.e., as mentor, mentee or both). This variety of characteristics provided the opportunity to examine the reality of knowledge management  in water operators in different contexts.