The Inclusive Urban Sanitation Initiative aims to produce a series of publications – books, position papers, and discussion papers. The discussion papers present analyses and findings from research and/or reports of projects, and programmes of the sanitation sector to instigate discussion among the sanitation community.

This paper examines key aspects related to utility and government financing for urban sanitation in eight cities in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, including the types of policies that influence decisions on finance allocation within the sanitation sector, resource sufficiency and gaps, equitable allocation to the poor and financial monitoring. The paper discusses general motivations and targets for sanitation financing at the country level, policies and regulations, roles and responsibilities, and strategies adopted for coping with funding gaps.

The culmination of the IWA and Grundfos Youth Action for SDG 6 Fellowship is this publication, which aims to highlight the important role young people play in the UN 2030 SDG Agenda, focusing on how the water sector can be transformed by their energy and brilliance. Each chapter of this anthology is a mosaic of the Youth Fellows’ projects, carefully chosen to reflect their unique contributions toward achieving the SDGs, with a focus on SDG 6.

Co-authored by the IWA & Grundfos Youth Fellows and edited by IWA.

If you have any questions regarding this publication or the IWA and Grundfos Youth Action for SDG 6 Fellowship, please contact Isabela Espindola, IWA Membership Engagement Senior Officer.

Drinking Water and Sanitation services regulators have great responsibility in the realization of the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation (DHAS). To what extent are DHAS being incorporated into the regulation of Drinking Water and Sanitation services in Latin America and the Caribbean? This publication seeks to identify trends in the region and good practices that help its full incorporation.

Co-authored by the Interamerican Development Bank & IWA.
English translation, 2023
Original version (Spanish), 2021

Download your copy here: publications.iadb.org/en/regulators-and-application-human-rights-drinking-water-and-sanitation-latin-america-and-caribbean

IWA is pleased to present a new short guide on Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Water Resource Recovery Facilities produced by the IWA Climate Smart Utilities GHG sub-group.

As humanity faces the looming challenges of global heating and irreversible tipping points such as increasingly frequent and record-breaking heatwaves and flooding, it is crucial for the water sector to accurately establish baselines and effectively reduce its greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). These actions are integral to global efforts aimed at achieving the critical objective of limiting global warming to within 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. To date, there is limited guidance available for the water sector to support utilities in comprehensively accounting for and reporting emissions at water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs), which includes both upstream and downstream emissions from wastewater management.

This white paper has been produced by the IWA Climate Smart Utilities GHG sub-group with the aim of providing a concise overview of GHG emissions for utilities and practitioners. It draws upon recent research and publications on the subject, highlighting the relevance of life cycle carbon accounting and wider life cycle assessment. This paper serves as the first instalment in a series focusing on GHG emissions, monitoring, and mitigation in wastewater treatment.

Acknowledgments

With thanks to contributors:
Eoghan Clifford, University of Galway, Ireland
Conall Holohan, NVP Energy, Ireland
Alexis de Kerchove, Xylem, Sweden
Amanda Lake, Jacobs, United Kingdom
Daniel Nolasco, Nolasco y Asociados Consulting, Argentina
Martin Srb, Pražské Vodovody a Kanalizace, Czech Republic
Corinne Trommsdorff, French Solid Waste Partnership, France
Liu Ye, University of Queensland, Australia

The contributors also would like to extend their gratitude to the IWA Secretariat team (Benedetta Sala, Brenda Ampomah, and Charles Joseph) for their assistance and support throughout the publication process.

Rapid population growth, increasing urbanisation and the escalation of climate change impacts are among the factors meaning greater attention and action are needed on urban water management. Against this backdrop, the 2022 IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition was held from 11 to 15 September 2022 under the theme ‘water for smart liveable cities’.

The event, the most successful ever IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition, gathered 8,900 water professionals from utilities, academia, private companies, governments, and global organisations in Copenhagen, Denmark. There, water leaders discussed and presented innovative solutions to rethink urban water management to transform the cities of the future. The ‘Copenhagen Report’ captures the key activities and themes from the event.

The next edition of the IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition will be held in Toronto, Canada, 11-15 August 2024.

2023 will see the next edition of the IWA Water and Development Congress & Exhibition, to be held in Kigali, Rwanda, 10-14 December 2023. Learn more: waterdevelopmentcongress.org

This Water safety plan manual provides practical guidance to support development and implementation of water safety planning in accordance with the principles presented in the WHO Guidelines for drinking-water quality.

The manual is targeted at water suppliers and organisations supporting water safety planning programmes, including government agencies responsible for public health, or regulation and surveillance of drinking-water quality, nongovernmental or intergovernmental organisations. The guidance provides a broad range of examples and case studies from lower- to higher-income settings, highlighting practical solutions to real-world challenges from around the globe to help readers apply the guidance in diverse contexts.

This second edition streamlines guidance on the integration of climate resilience and equity into the water safety planning approach, to help support access to safely managed drinking-water services for all users, despite growing uncertainties from a changing climate.

Download the complementary guidance

The Aquatown water safety plan: worked example is an extract of a water safety plan to support implementation of the guidance provided in the Water safety plan manual, second edition.

Download basic Water safety plan templates

These templates can support early-stage WSP teams to get started. They should be used in conjunction with the guidance provided in the Water safety plan manual, second edition.

• Module 1: WSP team membership and meeting templates
• Module 4: Risk assessment table template
• Module 5: Improvement plan template
• Module 6: Operational monitoring templates
• Module 7: Compliance monitoring template
• Module 8: Management procedure templates

The templates can be downloaded all at once in the Toolbox zip folder

Additional resources and supplementary tools to support water safety planning can be found at www.wsportal.org 

Related links

Link to the press release on the launch of the second edition of the Water safety plan manual

Water safety plan manual (WSP manual): step-by-step risk management for drinking-water, first edition

See full list of resources to support water safety planning 

Editor(s): Guang-Hao Chen, Mark C.M. van Loosdrecht, G.A. Ekama, Damir Brdjanovic

This is the Portuguese translation of Biological Wastewater Treatment 2nd Ed. – Translated by Marcelo Kenji Miki

Watch the online launch event organised by ABES with Daniel Nolasco, IWA Vice-President, on 23 November 2022.

The first edition of this book was published in 2008 and it went on to become IWA Publishing’s bestseller. Clearly there was a need for it because over the twenty years prior to 2008, the knowledge and understanding of wastewater treatment had advanced extensively and moved away from empirically-based approaches to a fundamental first-principles approach based on chemistry, microbiology, physical and bioprocess engineering, mathematics and modelling. However the quantity, complexity and diversity of these new developments was overwhelming for young water professionals, particularly in developing countries without readily available access to advanced-level tertiary education courses in wastewater treatment. For a whole new generation of young scientists and engineers entering the wastewater treatment profession, this book assembled and integrated the postgraduate course material of a dozen or so professors from research groups around the world who have made significant contributions to the advances in wastewater treatment. This material had matured to the degree that it had been codified into mathematical models for simulation with computers. The first edition of the book offered, that upon completion of an in-depth study of its contents, the modern approach of modelling and simulation in wastewater treatment plant design and operation could be embraced with deeper insight, advanced knowledge and greater confidence, be it activated sludge, biological nitrogen and phosphorus removal, secondary settling tanks, or biofilm systems.

However, the advances and developments in wastewater treatment have accelerated over the past 12 years since publication of the first edition. While all the chapters of the first edition have been updated to accommodate these advances and developments, some, such as granular sludge, membrane bioreactors, sulphur conversion-based bioprocesses and biofilm reactors which were new in 2008, have matured into new industry approaches and are also now included in this second edition. The target readership of this second edition remains the young water professionals, who will still be active in the field of protecting our precious water resources long after the aging professors who are leading some of these advances have retired. The authors, all still active in the field, are aware that cleaning dirty water has become more complex but that it is even more urgent now than 12 years ago, and offer this second edition to help the young water professionals engage with the scientific and bioprocess engineering principles of wastewater treatment science and technology with deeper insight, advanced knowledge and greater confidence built on stronger competence.

IWA is pleased to share its latest publication: Handbook on Basin Connected Cities: Why and How Urban Stakeholders can be Active Water Stewards in their Basins, co-published with INBO.

Many of the global challenges such as urbanisation, climate change, increased resource demand and competition between different water users, impact the cities where most of us live. These create water risks for cities including flooding, water scarcity and pollution. Flooding can cause loss of life, homes and infrastructure, and negatively affect economic activities within cities. Floods also disrupt and limit access to resources that cities rely on, not only water, but also food and energy. Water scarcity and drought often lead to costly investment in capital intensive approaches to secure supply, and potentially use of unsafe alternative sources. Declining water quality can affect water supply and sustainability. According to a 2019 World Bank report, when rivers become very heavily polluted, regions downstream see reductions in economic growth, losing between 0.8 and 2.0 percent of economic growth. Poor water quality affects human health leading to a decline in livelihood and social well-being. Furthermore, reduced access to safe water can impact hygiene making it challenging to control water- and vector-borne diseases

These pressures and challenges highlight the need for more sustainable urban planning and public services. At the same time, linkages between urban and rural areas can be strengthened by building on their existing economic, social and environmental ties. By proactively taking part in basin management, the city secures water, food and energy resources, protects water quality, and increases resilience to extreme events. It is an opportune time to encourage collaborative action to improve connectivity between urban and wider basin stakeholders to optimise costs, resilience, and biodiversity. Implementing appropriate and sustainable solutions in line with governance in cities and their basins means working towards public policy coherence and efficient water management across administrative boundaries and sectors. This includes stakeholder engagement across catchments involving institutional actors, representatives of the civil sphere and citizens.

ABOUT THE HANDBOOK ON BASIN-CONNECTED CITIES

The IWA-INBO Handbook on Basin-Connected Cities aims to support decision making in strengthening the city’s connection and integration with its river basin. It expands on the IWA Action Agenda for Basin-Connected Cities, which provides a framework to influence and activate utilities, cities and their industries to become water stewards working with basin stakeholders.

The Action Agenda and Handbook have 3 main parts:

1. Drivers for Action outlining how basin-wide risks are impacting urban areas from economic, environmental and social perspectives;
2. Pathways for Action demonstrating how cities and their basins can actively cooperate; and
3. Foundations for Action which are the elements needed to create an enabling environment to implement the pathways.

The Action Agenda for Basin-Connected Cities builds on IWA’s Principles for Water-Wise Cities, which aim to integrate water in planning across scales. The Principles support city leaders planning a future-proof access to safe water and sanitation for everyone in their cities, while delivering enhanced liveability for people and nature.

The Handbook is a comprehensive and detailed resource for practitioners, structured for quick reference. The purpose is to inform, influence and encourage urban stakeholders to take an active role in protecting and investing in water resources, together with basin and catchment organisations.

Download the handbook to learn more and join the conversation online using #BasinConnectedCities

Edited by: Oliver Grievson, Timothy Holloway, Bruce Johnson

The IWA Digital Water Programme is pleased to present its latest publication: the Digital Water Book. The book, formally launched at the 2022 World Water Congress on 12 September 2022, is a compilation of the knowledge shared and generated so far in the IWA Digital Water Programme.

The Programme acts as a catalyst for innovation, knowledge, and best practice, and provides a platform to share experiences and promote leadership in transitioning to digital water solutions. By sharing experience on the drivers and pathways to digital transformation in the water industry, the programme is consolidating lessons and guidance for water utilities to start or continue to build their journey towards digitalisation. The ecosystem of IWA members across the water value chain including utilities, regulators, technology companies, software companies, researchers and academia will be at the forefront of embracing emerging technologies to solve urgent and costly issues around water service provision (operation, liability, customer services, etc.).

Through the Digital Water Programme, the IWA leverages its worldwide member expertise to guide a new generation of water and wastewater utilities on their digital journey towards the uptake of digital technologies and their integration into water services.

Foreword: The importance of the digital transformation to the global water industry

The pressing need to address the challenges of the global water sector continues to be the driving force behind the digital transformation. In addition to rapidly changing demographics, intensified and prolonged natural disasters, and ageing infrastructure, the sudden emergence of new public health threats has added pressure on utilities, regulators, and governments. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, utilities were forced to accelerate implementation of digital solutions to maintain communication with customers and staff, and to monitor and control essential assets. Despite the unfavourable nature of these events, they provided opportunities for us to observe the benefits of digitalisation.

From International Water Association’s viewpoint, we can see that the digital
transformation is progressing at an impressive rate. So, to help catalyse innovation and smarter water management, we are pleased to share this selection of collective experiences and expert knowledge of our members to encourage you to internalise and envision what digitalisation may look like from your context.

This book is a collection of papers published under the IWA Digital Water Programme’s White Paper series. At the time of writing, we have published nine such papers, authored by our diverse and expert members. The book gives insight into some of the best practices found in digitalisation, combining academic research and industrial applications, and presenting case studies of successful implementation. We want this book to be a guide to utilities, water managers, water stewards, and everyone interested in the digital transformation journey.

The IWA Digital Water Programme is underpinned by the work and experiences of utilities, technology and software companies, regulators, and researchers involved in the digital transformation of the water sector. IWA continues to maintain a space where practitioners, both accustomed and new to digitalisation, can share with, learn from, and inspire each other and the wider water sector. Hence, this publication fits directly into the Programme’s and IWA’s strategy and objectives.

We at IWA continue to lead the global discourse on digital water by leveraging the deep wells of proficiency within our membership. In this era, only by sharing our collective knowledge and promoting collaboration can we ensure the ongoing improvement of our sector. Doing so will improve efficiency in the sector, reduce our carbon footprint, and ultimately lead to improved outcomes in water management and sanitation for all.

– Kalanithy Vairavamoorthy
Executive Director of the International Water Association

We are happy to present here the Global Trends Report‘s third edition, which will be formally launched on 13 September 2022 (10:00-10:25) at the IWA Stand at the World Water Congress & Exhibition in Copenhagen, Denmark.

This edition is composed of three main themes:

I. Innovative Technologies
II. Water and Health
III. Resource Recovery and Circular Economy

Within these themes, contributions from a total of 28 IWA Specialist Groups are gathered.

The first two editions of the Global Trends and Challenges in Water Science, Research
and Management (i.e., Global Trends Report) were published by The International Water Association (IWA) in 2012 and 2016, respectively, with the main aim of raising the profiles of the IWA Specialist Groups and visibility for expert members.

The IWA Specialist Groups are the core vehicle for IWA members networking and for issue-based interactions on water-related scientific, technical and management topics within IWA. Specialist Groups facilitate cooperation, networking and knowledge generation, primarily through regular conferences, meetings, working groups, task groups, newsletters and publications. They are created on a voluntary basis by IWA members and are strongly supported by the IWA office.

The reports drew upon the expertise of IWA’s Specialist Groups who had identified hot topics, innovations and global trends in water science, research and management that have impact on solving global water challenges. A diversity of approaches was highlighted, from detailed technical and scientific aspects to more integrated ones.

We invite you to discover the challenges, visions and trends of the wide variety of topics
that IWA Specialist Groups cover. Download the Global Trends Report here. Enjoy!