VEI and Unesco-IHE support regional training of staff African water utilities
Dutch-based organisations Vitens Evides International and Unesco-IHE agreed with Uganda’s National Water and sewerage corporation (NWSC) to strengthen the position of the International resource center to become a regional training center for staff of water utilities in Eastern Africa. A tripartite cooperation agreement was signed in Delft, the Netherlands on 16 January.
Capacity building for African water utilities
Cooperation of the three parties will focus on undertaking joint capacity development programs and joint applied research on relevant topics related to water utility management.
An important element is to strengthen the International Resource Center (IREC) of NWSC, which provides training to staff of NWSC and other water utilities.
By strengthening IREC, the centre can become a regional training and knowledge center catering to staff of water utilities in (Eastern) Africa.
Managing director dr. Silver Mugisha of NWSC (left), rector dr. Fritz Holzwarth of UNESCO-IHE (middle) and CEO dr. Marco Schouten of VEI (right) on occasion of signing of the tripartite agreement.
Three different parties
The three parties of this cooperation agreement are quite diverse. NWSC is Uganda’s national water utility mandated to operate and provide water and sewerage services in 174 towns in the country. It has been globally recognized as a utility which has been able to achieve remarkable performance improvements over the past two decades.
Unesco-IHE is the largest graduate water education facility in the world, with a long history of capacity development for water supply and sanitation in Africa.
Vitens Evides International (VEI) is the vehicle for the international corporate social responsibility agenda of six Dutch water operators and supports peer water operators in Africa and Asia on a not-for-profit basis towards realizing SDG 6 (ensuring universal access to water and sanitation).
Common mission
Although their different approaches and expertise, NWSC, Unesco-IHE and VEI share a common mission: to improve the capacity of water utilities to provide water supply and sanitation services.
Their diversity allows the partnership to combine operational and practical utility management know-how with capacity development and applied research expertise. This makes the partnership highly relevant for addressing the challenges existing in the African water supply and sanitation sector.
This news item was originally published on the website of Vitens Evides International and Unesco-IHE.
Read also on this website
● Unesco-IHE and RIVM trained management Suriname Water Company on Water Safety Plans, 9 January 2017
● VEI concludes management project resulting in 50 percent more revenue for water utilities in Oromia, Ethiopia, 15 August 2016
● Unesco-IHE trains students from small island states to strengthen local water management, 15 February 2016
● AIWW Aquatech 2015: VEI and World Resources Institute join forces on green utilities, 5 November 2015
● Country: Uganda
More information
Unesco-IHE
Delft, the Netherlands
+31 15 212 29 21
www.unesco-ihe.org
Vitens Evides International
Utrecht, the Netherlands
+31 88 884 7991
www.vitensevidesinternational.com