‘Public Water and COVID-19: Dark Clouds and Silver Linings’ provides an overview of public water operators' response to Covid-19 and the impact that the pandemic has had on the public water sector. Released this week, the book has been jointly published by the Municipal Service Project, Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO) and the Transnational Institute.

Today, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, Mr. Léo Heller, presents his report on Human rights and the privatisation of water and sanitation services to the United Nations General Assembly.

The Sardinian public water operator Abbanoa (Italy) has launched a social water emergency bonus initiative to offer a tariff reimbursement in favour of households who are in a vulnerable socio-economic situation due to the covid-19 health emergency lockdown measures.

The Spanish public water operator of the city of Seville, EMASESA, has decided to allocate 1,4M € of 2021 budget to support around 10,000 households.

Acquedotto Pugliese (AQP) in collaboration with the association 'A hope for Cameroon' will finance the construction of three water wells in the Edea region in Cameroon.

The Committee of the Regions' Opinion on the Fitness check of the Water Framework Directive, Groundwater Directive, Environmental Quality Standards Directive and Floods Directive, adopted on 2 July 2020, highlights Aqua Publica Europea's Water Erasmus initiative as a best practice to support the implementation of EU water legislation and the improvement of water management.

On 4 August 2020, HAMBURG WASSER (Hamburg, Germany) presented a study focus on the drinking water habits of the citizens of Hamburg. The results obtained show that 42% of the citizens prefer tap water rather than bottled water (26%).

In our Spring 2020 newsletter, we talk about the new members, the members of Aqua Publica Europea response to the COVID-19 emergency, the water policy and the public water management.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and and Development (OECD) publishes its study 'Financing water supply, sanitation and flood protection: Challenges in EU Member States and Policy Options', conducted jointly with the European Commission.