Program description and covered topics

Water supply and sanitation utilities often identify medium-size investments (metering, energy efficiency, asset renewal), which are financially viable, but are too large to be financed from the utilities own funds, and too small for typical large-scale sources such as EU funds or IFIs. For this, governments and utilities must use all available instruments and resources, and focus on actions to improve the financial viability of service providers, as achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and complying with the EU water related directives will require a significant increase in funding for the water and sanitation sector, beyond public sector and concessional funding.

The Program developed in collaboration with the World Bank Group, will be offering different learning activities to help utilities increase their capacity of accessing financing. The first will be a learning course oriented at increasing the capacity of utilities to manage financial concepts and design financing strategies, to be held in May 2017 in Vienna. The Program will then be delivered by national or regional Hubs in local language and participating utilities will pay a registration fee which will be communicated by the Hub.

Learning goals

What are adequate ratios and indicators to evaluate operational performance?
Understanding financial statements of WSS utilities
How to estimate cost of service and revenue requirement?
What is the meaning of financial sustainability and creditworthiness?

Participating Hubs

Aquasan Network in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bulgarian Water Association

Association of Utility Service Providers of Macedonia

Association for Water Technology and Sanitary Engineering of Serbia

Water Supply and Sewerage Association of Albania

Wastewater Works Association of Kosovo