AquaRating: The new way to help you in Transforming the Management of Water and Sanitation Utilities

The 20^th African Water Association Congress and Exhibition in Kampala, Uganda held from 24 to 27 February 2020 is yet another opportunity for water and sanitation practitioners to discuss and showcase innovations that accelerate access to water and sanitation for all. One of the innovations that will be discussed is AquaRating, the new universal standard by which to assess drinking water and wastewater utilities.

Water and wastewater utilities are facing increasing environmental, financial, and regulatory pressure to become more efficient, transparent, and to ensure that each new investment achieves more than before. To respond to this, the International Water Association (IWA) and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) developed the AquaRating method to assess utilities performance in a comprehensive and transparent way with the objective of facilitating continual improvement of drinking water and wastewater services. AquaRating provides a clear vision of all aspects of the utility, establishing a reliable baseline and orienting utilities on the most important areas to be improved.

The AquaRating standard comprehensively assesses drinking water and wastewater services based on 112 assessment elements organized into 8 areas, each of which is assigned a rating. These ratings are then aggregated into a single rating (from 0 to 100) for the utility. The assessment elements consist of good practices, performance indicators and information quality.

The International Water Association organised a session at the AfWA congress to introduce the AquaRating method and present some experiences from utilities that have used the AquaRating method. The workshop is designed to inform participants the possibilities of AquaRating as a management and performance assessment tool and as a baseline for planning, investment and benchmarking. It also highlighted the benefits of using AquaRating and the opportunities for organisations and donors to work with utilities and better define how and where they should make their investments, based on concrete and standardised data.

Additionally, the attendees will have the opportunity to share ideas, experiences, and challenges on similar processes. They will also be invited to join a global community of practitioners working on change management in different regions.

More information on AquaRating: https://iwa-network.org/projects/aquarating/

Photos from AquaRating session at AfWA Congress in Kampala, Uganda: Prof. Enrique Cabrera, IWA Vice President, and  Kizito Masinde, IWA Consultant Strategic Programmes, present on AquaRating at the AfWA Congress.