Technical Working Groups

Water and wastewater utilities have been going through various reforms and restructuring initiatives to improve operational performance, extend services, and advance management systems.  The debate question is: how much does the shape and structure of the utility affect its management performance?  Utilities ownership, private sector participation, public-private partnerships, public-public partnerships, commercialization, and utility competiveness are some of the debated structures under utility reform initiatives.  The reform debate extended beyond shapes and structures to address business practices including autonomy, recovery of costs, corporate governance, and performance management. In Jordan, utility reform has focused on commercialization of services through establishing companies that are owned by the government for operations and forms of operations and micro Private Sector Participation (PSP).  In Egypt, the government has established the holding company and the subsidiary companies, and requested recovery of O&M costs. In Morocco, lease contracts are seen in major cities and commercialized operations of ONEP in addition to outsourcing of operations. In the Gulf, reform initiatives show separation of utility operations into production, transmission, and distribution with PSP in production and distribution.

 

to serve as a knowledge centre within ACWUA to provide advice and best practices on a wide range of utilities reform topics To provide a forum for developing regional frameworks and guiding principles that will be further incorporated into national policies and programs and adopted at utility level To explore the opportunities of exchanging regional experience and organizing twinning opportunities between water utilities in the region.