At the end of August, the EThekwini Water & Sanitation (EWS) unit in Durban (South Africa), and HAMBURG WASSER (Germany), together with Open Cities Lab (OCL), Viva con Agua (VcA) and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) as additional partners, launched a 3-year Water Operator Partnership (WOP). This is one of 22 WOPs managed through the UN-Habitat's Global Water Operators' Partnerships Alliance (GWOPA) and funded by the Directorate General of the EU Commission.

The main objective of our partnership is to facilitate peer-to-peer support and mutual learning between the partners involved. This will enable them to share skills, knowledge and experience, and thus build the capacity of EWS and improve its operational performance.

We are very excited about the launch of our partnership, as we have assembled a strong and diverse team of around 20 experts from all partners. Our joint team will focus in particular on:

• further developing hydraulic modelling capacities and geographic information systems (GIS), validating quantitative water balances, and designing, prototyping and implementing a cost-effective smart metering solution for the EWS network to reduce water losses
• drafting recommendations for fair tariff models that are accepted by relevant customer segments
• raising awareness among customer groups concerning fair water billing and the use of off-grid sanitary facilities
• sharing lessons learned and identifying possible improvements in the organisation of sludge treatment work at the sewage treatment plant
• equal treatment and social inclusion of the genders
• knowledge management within the partnership and in the context of EU-wide initiatives.

 
The team has developed a 3-year work plan and has already launched key activities. These include for instance a successful hackathon event in Durban to develop smart meter solutions, involving more than 50 participants from the sector.

We are looking forward to working with our WOP partners. This week we are currently on our first joint field trip at EWS, with a special focus on hydraulic modelling, GIS and relevant data.