- Hamburger Stadtentwässerung AöR — Mentor
The joint WOP between Germany and South Africa will contribute to a number of SDGs, esp. 6, 5, 11, and 17.The focus is laid on the improvement of water and sanitation services through multistakeholder involvement. Capacity development in reducing NRW, and improving water metering and sanitation efficiency will be at the core of the WOP. Non-traditional ways of addressing customers and women ́s empowerment among utility staff will complement a sound WOP project.
The expected results (outcomes) of the WOP project are as followed:A. Strengthened capacitythrough multi-facettet capacity development of EWS staff, through training and knowledge sharing (peer exchange, online workshops, classroom and on the job) on the topics of hydraulic modelling, meter reading, smart metering, tariff modelling, organisational development, infrastructure planning, customer care, operation and maintenance of equipment. This, in combination with the complementary technical support and purchase of the required equipment, will as a result lead to a number ofimportant improvements in the utility's performance, namely:• Improved operational conditions for water supply and reduced non-revenue water (NRW) / water losses.This will be achieved through application of technical tools, hydraulic modelling and preventive O&M as well as community sensitization (as support measure).• Established technical base for the introduction of smart water metering.Design, construction and testing of low-cost smart water meter prototype under the WOP project will serve as the necessary first step towards the further technological shift as EWS aims at subsequently raising funds for the mass production of the low-cost smart meters based on the prototype. • Improved financial sustainability of the provided water and sanitation services.In the nearest future, EWS aims at producing and automating a smart tariff model for the city. A comprehensive research on tariff modelling options coupled with the necessary stakeholder consultations and end users' surveys will lay basis for this longer-term goal. The special attention will be given to inclusion of various customer groups into the research to ensure the "no one left behind" principle in the tarif modelling.• Improved sanitation and wastewater management at decision-making level.For this, work on optimising organisational structures will be carried out.Through the extensive capacity building measures on the above core topics, WOP expects to additionally increase beneficiary's capacity to address cross-cutting issues such as climate change, apply a human rights approach, and better serve a vulnerable population. Furthermore, the WOP will produce a number of outputs (such as a smart water meter prototype, recommendations report on the tariff modelling) which will increase competitive strength of EWS to raise funds for innovation processes.B. Increased customers` acceptancein urban and rural settings and improved living conditions in informal settlements through community sensitization. Community sensitization campaigns and meetings will aim at increasing knowledge and awareness regarding water usage, bill payments, sanitation and protection of infrastructure. This is seen as an excellent complementary "soft" ("non-technical") measure that will create synergies with the work on reducing water losses, developing a successful tariff model and improving management of de-centralised sanitation. This will be also a crutial measure for enhancing financial sustainability of the water supplz and sanitation services. Various customer groups, including vulnerable population will be covered. The sensitization campaigns will furthermore increase the visibility of the WOP and contribute to the overall communication efforts under the EU-WOP.C. Strengthened capacity in women`s empowerment and leadership skills in the utility staff in South Africa and Germany. Gender equality issues in workplace will be raised and addressed at operational and management level.The overall outcome is the contribution to the Agenda2030, especially to: SDG 6 –Water and Sanitation
Page 23of 68SDG 5 –WomenSDG 11 –Sustainable CitiesSDG 17 –Global Partnerships.Additionally, all partners will learn from this WOP and the community of practice. They will use a lot of active external communication to promote the WOP among a broader audience and be engaged in further WOPs in the future.The expected results will be reached in a joint work by all six partner organisations, with four partners providing significant in-kind contributions in terms of human resources. The well-established cooperation between the partners will provide basis to continue joint work beyond the time span of the project and a number of the produced outputs will serve as good basis for further resource mobilization.