Water, Sewage & Effluent March April 2019 | Page 8

The International Water Association
(IWA)
and
the
Inter-American
Development Bank (IDB) jointly launched
the digital AquaRating Community of
Practice for water professionals at
a water utilities workshop in Quito,
Ecuador, held on 11–12 February.
This digital platform aims at promoting
the improvement of water and sanitation
services through the exchange of
knowledge, experiences, and good
practices among its members.
The AquaRating Community of
Practice is especially designed for
professionals who work to improve the
performance of water utilities through
the AquaRating method — a pioneering
system of comprehensive performance
evaluation of water and sanitation
service
providers.
This
method
allows them to identify improvement
opportunities to offer quality services,
ensure coverage, and operate more
efficiently.
Through a strategic alliance, IWA
and IDB developed the AquaRating
method. Today, more than 60 water
and sanitation companies across the
world use AquaRating to improve their
performance and efficiency in water
resource
management.
Currently,
AquaRating is also a reference model
for regulators, government institutions,
cooperation agents for development,
and funders, among others.
“The AquaRating Community of
Practice aims to capture the experience
of water companies that have applied
AquaRating so that other companies
can learn from these applications and
achieve greater benefits by using the
tools that support them on their journey
to meet the Sustainable Development
Goals,” states Kala Vairavamoorthy, IWA
executive director.
Hosted on the digital environment
of IWA Connect, the online platform
of IWA, the AquaRating Community of
Practice is open to water professionals
committed to improving the efficiency
of their companies, who are passionate
about generating collective solutions to
global water challenges.
“The community of practice will be a
very useful tool for water and sanitation
companies to share and learn from their
common experiences, create specific
themes, and generate a dynamic of open
knowledge in the water and sanitation
6
sector,” says Sergio I. Campos G., head
of the IDB’s water and sanitation division.
The official presentation of the
Community of Practice took place
during the International Workshop on
Management of Change in Companies
of the Water and Sanitation Sector, in
Quito, Ecuador, on 11 and 12 February.
It was attended by more than a hundred
water professionals from Latin American
service providers, familiar with the
characterisation of the performance
offered by AquaRating.
During the workshop, the AquaRating
Certification was awarded to the
following Latin American utilities: ETAPA,
Ecuador; Agua Kpital Cúcuta, Colombia;
including the recertification to EPMAPS,
Quito, Ecuador.
This international recognition, given
by IDB and IWA, certifies that these
service providers were subjected to a
comprehensive evaluation, verified by an
independently authorised audit process.
During the ceremony, special mention
was made to three more Latin American
water companies that have gained
the AquaRating Certification: SADM,
Monterrey, Mexico; EPSAS, La Paz,
Bolivia; and ANDA, El Salvador. 
Promoting the improvement of water and sanitation
services worldwide
The session “AquaRating, transforming the management of water and sanitation
companies” was developed on 14 November 2017, under the framework of the Water
and Development Congress of the International Water Association-IWA 2017, in Buenos
Aires, Argentina.
Water Sewage & Effluent March/April 2019
www.waterafrica.co.za