The Challenge
Three in ten people around the world (2.1 billion people) lack access to clean, safe, and readily available water at home, and almost double that number (4.3 billion people) lack sustainable access to safely managed sanitation, a new United Nations report has warned, calling on countries to do more to fulfil these basic human rights. Over 360,000 children under the age of five die annually in poor countries due to preventable water-borne diseases. According to WHO/UNICEF reports “Safe water, effective sanitation, and hygiene are critical to the health of every child and every community – and thus are essential to building stronger, healthier, and more equitable societies.”
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for water and sanitation aim by 2030 to achieve sustainable and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all. These goals will be achieved by improving water quality, water-use efficiency, and integrated water resources management. Above all, the aim is to achieve improved and universal access to water and sanitation services for poor and marginalized populations in the cities, towns, and villages of poorer countries. The tasks ahead to achieve universal sustainable access to water and sanitation services globally, present enormous challenges to the international community, development agencies throughout the world, as well as national governments, water operators, and local communities of developing countries throughout the global South.
Water Operators in the Global South
Direct responsibility to provide sustainable and affordable water and wastewater-related services, both in quantity and in quality, to all sectors of society including poor populations falls on water operators. To meet the SDGs the majority of water operators in developing countries face an enormous challenge of strengthening service delivery to supply existing and fast-growing future populations. Upgrading services to meet the SDG targets will demand very large investments in infrastructure by governments, donors, and international agencies. Nevertheless, infrastructure investment alone will not deliver better and more sustainable services. Reaching these targets also needs performance improvement of water operators and utilities using the inputs of skilled professionals and technicians who have the right knowledge and expertise to manage, operate, and maintain the new assets.
Water Operators Partnerships (WOPs)
That is exactly the focus of the Water Operators Partnerships (WOPs) approach. WOPs are peer-to-peer mentoring partnerships between two or more water operators, carried out on a not-for-profit basis, with the objective of strengthening operators capacity, enhancing their performance, and enabling the beneficiary operators to provide improved service to more people, especially poor and marginalized populations including women and children. WOPs have a proven track record of being highly cost-effective, and being very successful in transforming the lives of millions of people around the world.