Marco Antonio Cevallos is Director of EPMAPS, the public drinking water utility in Quito, Ecuador. He has played a key role in modernising and improving services and infrastructure, going beyond regional service standards to guarantee service availability and reliability, and achieving financial sustainability with due attention to social equity. His work has paid special attention to the urban poor and to rural populations in river basins whose livelihoods depend on managing natural resource properly. This has strengthened the link between urban consumers and rural custodians of water resources, as well as reducing natural and man-made risks to secure water resource in the medium- and long-term.