APE participated in the 5th WOPs Congress organised by the Global Water Operators' Partnerships Alliance (GWOPA), from 22-25 May 2023 in Bonn, Germany. The Congress was dedicated to addressing resilience in challenging times.
GWOPA is an international network created in 2009 to support water operators through Water Operator’s Partnerships (WOPs). Thanks to WOPs, GWOPA aims to support water operators in helping one another tackle common challenges and provide quality services to all.
APE members Hamburg Wasser, SMAT, EYDAP, Budapest Waterworks and SWDE contributed by sharing their experiences with WOPs, their expertise in international cooperation and the catalysts that could enable them to do more on this front. We welcome these insightful reflections and discussions, which will help us to ensure that European operators can play a greater role in cooperation.
Aqua Publica Europea also contributed to several sessions:
- The European Enablers’ Dialogue which discussed the benefits for mentors and mentees of mobilising staff for WOPs, and explored strategies and conditions for larger utilities' staff mobilisation.
- A session on how to boost WOPs in the South-East Europe region.
Additionally, we had the pleasure of co-convening a session together with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Our session dedicated to approaches to increase carbon efficiency and strengthen climate resilience explored challenges and opportunities through the presentation of case studies on energy recovery from wastewater treatment plants and a high-level panel discussion involving the three key players in the implementation of WOPs:
- Finance with the participation of the European Investment Bank
- Governance and regulation with the participation of Zambia's national regulator, the National Water Supply and Sanitation Council (NWASCO)
- Operations with the participation of Hamburg Wasser
We are proud of the exchanges and insights generated by our session, and we look forward to continuing the discussion!
