Dear friends of the Utility Platform,

Joy and sorrow go hand in hand this year. As happy as we are that many utility partnerships have continued to make good progress in the implementation of their projects - also by meeting personally again - the Russian war of aggression has brought much suffering to Ukraine and its people.

Russian attacks are mainly targeting critical infrastructure in Ukraine, which makes the situation of our Ukrainian partners even more dangerous. After the first deliveries of technical equipment in March, Stadtentwässerung Dresden was able to ship more technical supplies towards Lviv, Ternopil and Nadvirna in mid-December.

Since March 2022, another four solidarity partnerships have been established, involving Hamburg Wasser, MVV-Netze Mannheim and the Oldenburgisch-Ostfriesischer Wasserverband on the German side. On the Ukrainian side, the water utilities of Kiyv, Chernivtsi, Sumy and Chernihiv are now being supported. We will continue to strengthen these partnerships next year and we expect more solidarity partnerships to be included in the network. At this point, we are most grateful for the support by the German Association of Local Public Utilities (VKU), which mobilises its members for utility partnerships and organises the logistics for aid deliveries of water technology to Ukraine together with GIZ.

However, in 2023, we also want to expand partnerships of municipal utilities in other world regions. Water operator partnerships can make an important contribution to achieving SDG 6 - water and sanitation for all by 2030 - by enabling water companies to improve their services. It is also being considered to transfer lessons learned to the waste sector.

Our project has now been extended until mid-2024. We encourage all project participants to achieve their partnership goals within this period, as successful partnerships are key to the long-term establishment of the utility platform. Please already note an important date for 2024: the BMZ is organizing the conference "Water Operators' Partnerships - Sustainable Water Security Beyond Aid" from May 24 to 25, 2022. The aim of the event is to raise awareness of our concerns among policymakers and to draw attention to the importance of water operator partnerships in international cooperation. Right after the conference, our next network meeting will take place in Berlin on May 25 and 26, 2022. We will keep you posted!

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your great commitment. This pilot project would not be possible without the tireless efforts of all the enthusiastic people in the water companies, who are campaigning for our goals - both in Germany and in our partner countries!

We wish you peaceful holidays and a happy new year!

Your utility platform team
Heiko Heidemann & Maria König (GIZ)
Linda Engel & Alvaro Aguado-Hernandez (SKEW)