Pakistan Water Operators Network Pwon

Introduction Pakistan Water Operators Network (PWON) was launched by Water and Sanitation Program-South Asia (WSP-SA) in March 2011 during Pakistan Urban Forum held in Lahore with the support of UN-HABITAT. Background The Global Water Operators’ Partnership Alliance (GWOPA) is a key element of the Hashimoto Action Plan (also designated as the Compendium of Actions (COA)) that were announced by the United Nations Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation (UNSGAB) during the 4th World Water Forum held in Mexico (2003). The Hashimoto Action Plan proposed Water Operators Partnerships (WOPs) as a tool for building the capacity and improving the performance of water operators in order to step up progress toward the MDGs targets for water and sanitation services. The WOP initiative arose from the need to improve the performance of water service operators which are responsible for providing water and sanitation services to more than 90% of urban households (HH). The WOP basic strategy is to seek accelerated improvements through more intense and systematic knowledge sharing including WOP or peer support partnerships between operators. The WOP movement was endorsed by UN-DESA in 2005 and the Global Water Operators’ Partnerships Alliance was established in January 2009 and hosted by UN-Habitat. UN Habitat was tasked with the responsibility to operationalize it through distinct regional initiatives linked and coordinated by GWOPA’s Secretariat based in Barcelona, Spain. The regional WOPs are being supported by existing key partners including regional financial institutions, and by regional and/or sub-regional associations of water utilities as well as networks/partnerships, and regional governmental bodies. PWON is also result of such initiative by World Bank and UN- Habitat in Pakistan. Initially it was launched under the name of Pakistan Water Operators Partnerships (PWOPs) later its name changed to Pakistan Water Operators’ Network (PWON). PWOP was established to promote Water Operators Partnership (WOPs) culture between Water and Sanitation Operators in Pakistan. As W&S utilities start connecting with PWOP, it amplify importance to be connected with other utilities and finally it turned to PWON. Being a W&S Network, PWON is connecting utilities from all over Pakistan. At the start PWOPs kept its membership stick to major urban utilities of Pakistan, with the emergence of PWON as network, PWON got popularity among W&S utilities and many utilities showed their interest to join the network, in 2017 PWON responded to demand and start accepting membership requests of emerging W&S utilities.