Gabes, a coastal city in southeastern Tunisia, has long battled the twin crises of water scarcity and flooding. Rising sea levels in the Mediterranean, fuelled by melting glaciers, threaten to exacerbate these challenges, placing immense strain on the city’s already overburdened water infrastructure. But thanks to the Water Operators’ Partnership, life in Gabes is changing for the better.
A City on the Brink
Access to clean water and sanitation is a fundamental right, yet women’s role in managing these services is often overlooked. In Mardan, Pakistan, women are becoming active change agents, moving from traditional roles in the water and sanitation sector and influencing decisions through engagement, capacity building, and entrepreneurship.
The Water Operators’ Partnership (WOP) between Madrid-based Canal de Isabel II and Peruvian utility Sedapal has been recognized at the Caminos Madrid Awards for its achievements in sustainable water management. The award acknowledges the partnership’s efforts in advancing wastewater treatment, climate adaptation and international cooperation. Read more here.
At the World Urban Forum in Cairo, UN-Habitat and the European Union unveiled the second phase of the European Union Water Operators' Partnerships (EU-WOP) Programme, marking a major effort to scale up global water and sanitation solutions through peer-to-peer collaborations.
In celebration of the 2024 South-South Cooperation Day, GWOPA/UN-Habitat emphasizes the importance of South-South and triangular cooperation. By leveraging shared experiences, knowledge, and resources in similar contexts, countries can enhance their ability to address complex challenges, promote inclusive development, and ensure a sustainable future for all. This approach strengthens partnerships among developing countries through the exchange of experiences, the pooling and sharing of technical resources, and development of complementary abilities for problem-solving.
“Low-income Services Unit is not a very exciting operational focus area for most utilities because they have to put in more to deliver services. Yet what is got from there to sustain services is minimal. With support from the EU-WOP programme, […renewed focus on and services delivery in low-income communities] has been enhanced through capacity enhancement and structuring of the initiatives," Zainab Mpakiraba (Manager External Services at National Water & Sewerage Corporation, National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC-Uganda))
Budapest Waterworks, the drinking water utility for the Hungarian capital, is mentoring[JM1] a Water Operators’ Partnership (WOP) between Budapest Waterworks and Pakistan’s Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) Lahore, and Water and Sanitation Services Company (WSSC) Mardan funded by the EU-WOP Programme and managed by GWOPA/UN-Habitat.
Because well-executed WOPs are strongly integrated within the utility’s ongoing business and major investments, it can sometimes be a challenge to say what the WOP accomplished independently. Meeting with operator partners helped trace the path between the beginnings of the partnership, the ongoing utility turnaround, and the collaboration, clarifying how the new knowledge, innovation, and support to improved practices brought in by the WOP have catalysed or helped make the best use of, investments made by the utility and its funders like the Asian Development Bank.
GWOPA, jointly with UN-Habitat Senegal Country Office, conducted a monitoring mission of the EU-WOP project, titled “RC-ONAS-21 Strengthening the capacities of ONAS in Senegal”, between the National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water (ONEE), Morocco and the Office National de l´Assainissement du Senegal (National Sanitation Office of Senegal - ONAS) from 11 to 15 December 2023. The partnership resulting from the EU-WOP project has shown significant outcomes.