Established in 2008, WaterLinks is a regional network of water services operators, practitioners and development partners that supports WOPs in the Asia-Pacific region and catalyzes efficiency improvements to enhance and expand access to urban water and sanitation services. 

All WaterLinks activities draw on a range of partner resources and capabilities to achieve tangible results.  To date, at least60 WOPs and several training programs under WaterLinks have led to more than 1 million urban residents having improved access to water and sanitation services; 100,000 low-income people with first time water supply and sanitation services; 2,500 operator staff trained; and $10 million leveraged by participating service providers in capital and capacity investments.

 

Focus Areas
Partnerships focus on addressing service delivery challenges listed below.  You can read about the main partnerships, publications, training, and ongoing dialogue by each topic below:

Asset Management Climate Change Adaptation and Proofing Climate Change Mitigation (Efficient Energy Use) Continuous Delivery of Safe Water (24/7) Customer Relations Management Water Loss Management

Services Provision to Low-Income Communities Septage Management Sewerage Services (Collection, Disposal and Treatment) WASH Promotion Water Quality Management Planning and Risk Management

 

Core Activities
The core premise of WaterLinks is to assist urban water and sanitation service providers in the Asia-Pacific region to better deliver safe water and basic sanitation services, especially to underserved communities.  WaterLinks employs three key activities, each drawing on a range of resources, to achieve real on-the-ground results in terms of expanded or improved access to services and increased capacity:

 

Water Operator Partnerships (WOPs)

 In a WOP, a "mentor" partner works together with the "recipient" partner to identify and address a service delivery challenge through a 12-18 month partnership arrangement.  Mentor partners are service providers with tested innovative solutions who are willing to share their knowledge according to their priorities and interests.  Recipient partners are those seeking to learn and adopt new or improved practices to advance their services delivery.  Partners typically formalize a partnership agreement and jointly develop a work plan detailing specific commitments, activities, resources, timelines and outcomes. 

Partnership activities include technical consultations, specialized on-the-job training, technology demonstrations, peer review of procedures and systems, and information exchange.  Through the network, the WaterLinks Center links mentor and recipient partners according to their interests, capabilities and needs, and offers facilitation support to help implement partnership activities and meet targeted outcomes.    
 

Regional Capacity Building

To support WOPs, the WaterLinks Center facilitate the preparation and implementation of regional training programs and knowledge products (such as toolkits, manuals, and applied studies).  
 

Information Sharing and Networking

 To promote scale-up and replication, the WaterLinks Center disseminates good practices emerging through WOPs via publications, the WaterLinks website, and global, regional and national sector events.  The WaterLinks Center also organizes regional networking events, including the Annual WaterLinks Forum, to share partnership results and facilitate new partnerships.  Each year at the WaterLinks Forum, WaterLinks presents awards recognizing partnerships that excel in achieving service improvements.