Corporate social responsibility
Mentoring for WOP4R projects that improve the region’s water resilience and access to safe water services can contribute to your organisation’s corporate social responsibility initiatives.
WOP4R: Water Organisation Partnerships for Resilience
The world needs water. But in the Asia-Pacific region alone, approximately 500 million people lack safe drinking water, and 1.2 billion live without adequate sanitation. Here’s how we can work together to provide more equitable access to water.
Project facts
- ClientAsian Development Bank
- LocationAPAC region
- Date2022–Present
- ChallengeDelivering water infrastructure projects with greater resilience through mentoring partnerships.
- SolutionThe WOP4R programme delivers high-quality, resilient drinking water and sanitation services.
The challenge
Created by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 2007, the Water Operators Partnerships (WOP) programme has helped utilities in countries across the region solve complex water and sanitation challenges. As well as ensuring public safety, improved water supply and sanitation can help to boost economic growth and reduce poverty.
However, the combined impacts of climate change, urbanisation, and rapid economic growth have highlighted the critical challenge water utilities face when it comes to the sustainability and resilience of their water and sanitation services. Following WOP’s success, ADB created the next generation of the programme: Water Organization Partnerships for Resilience (WOP4R).
The solution
Launched in 2023, WOP4R is designed to “twin” a water entity with the right water industry expert organisation to help achieve greater efficiency and resilience in priority areas such as non-revenue water, performance monitoring, operation and maintenance, asset management, financial planning, stakeholder communication, and climate resiliency, among many others.
To help ensure every water partnership has the best chance of success, ADB appointed Royal HaskoningDHV to serve as the WOP4R programme management team.
Royal HaskoningDHV, with its strong commitment to enhancing society together, has successfully delivered design, engineering, and consulting services to the water industry for over 140 years. This has cemented its reputation as a trusted and highly reliable partner for clients in many sectors, including those targeted by the ADB WOP4R program:
- Urban water and sanitation utilities that need to expand and improve services to satisfy a growing population, while protecting their assets from climate change and extreme weather events.
- River basin management organisations that face many challenges in managing limited water resources and providing sustainable water access to multiple users and communities.
- Irrigation associations that need to meet the rising demand for irrigation water to support food security by promoting more efficient and equitable use of water.
As the programme management consultant, Royal HaskoningDHV assists ADB in establishing and implementing these WOP4R partnerships in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.
The result: More partnerships and greater access to water
With Royal HaskoningDHV's leadership, the WOP4R programme already delivers impactful partnerships across the APAC region.
Additional to the below, partnerships are being planned on behalf of recipient water organisations in Tajikistan, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Fiji.
The partnerships
Improving Sewerage Management in Baguio City
In the first twinning project, Malaysia’s national sewerage company, Indah Water Konsortium Sdn Bhd (IWK), has partnered with the recipient entity, the City Environment and Parks Management Office (CEPMO) of Baguio, Philippines, to help improve CEPMO's capacity in delivering sewerage and septage management services to the city. Focus areas are sewage treatment plant (STP) monitoring, energy efficiency, sewer network operation and maintenance, staff competency management, and stakeholder management. Capacity-building sessions include in-class and online training/mentoring and site visits to IWK's wastewater treatment and research facilities in Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya in Malaysia. This partnership is also timely as the City of Baguio, through ADB funding, will be constructing a new wastewater treatment plant.
The benefits of WOP4R mentoring
Learning and development experiences
As a mentor, you’ll get an exciting opportunity to learn new skills and work on projects that allow you to develop your creative, problem-solving, and collaborative abilities.
Reward and motivation
Becoming a mentor gives you first-hand experience in solving challenges for the greater good – so you feel rewarded and motivated to take on the next challenge.
Opportunities for business networking
WOP4R mentors will have instant access to an extensive network of peers and partners who are equally committed to working together to share best practices.
Calling for potential mentors
A key ingredient of a successful WOP4R partnership is finding the right mentor partner for our WOP4R recipient organisations.
So, if you work for a water or wastewater utility, a regulatory body, or a river basin organisation and are interested in participating as a mentor in WOP4R, please register your interest below.
Download the WOP4R FLYERDownload the WOP4R FLYER
DownloadDownload the WOP4R FLYERDownload the WOP4R FLYER
Download the WOP4R programme brochure
Learn more about the WOP4R programme and its impact by downloading our comprehensive brochure. Find out more information on the program, its benefits for participating entities, and how it contributes to a water-secure future in Asia-Pacific.
Got a question?
Contact our Climate Resilience experts!
.jpg?h=1080&iar=0&w=1920&hash=F58435338E814B06DB575C8C22045637)
