Background

The Water Operators Partnership (WOPs) Program, a collaboration between ADB and the Global Water Partnership, aims to enable water utilities improve service coverage, delivery, financial sustainability, and other aspects of their performance. One of its key strategies is help build the capacities of water utilities in the delivery of water services through the conduct of technical training and development of knowledge products to help water utilities in their day to day operations.

Throughout the Asia and the Pacific Region, the provision of water supply is beset by a number of problems: low coverage, high non-revenue water levels, intermittent supply, poor water quality and very low tariff that impacts on the quality of service provision, expansion of service coverage and sustainability of water infrastructure, and the absence of a regulatory body to oversee tariff setting.

One of the main reasons for low tariff and insufficient regulation is the limited understanding of the importance of regulation and the complexities of tariff setting among decision-makers. This WOPs workshop will help national water agencies and utilities understand and appreciate the importance of tariff and regulations, its relationships and interaction among its components, and develop appropriate strategies and approaches to address tariff setting.

Objectives

The workshop aims to provide participants with a basic understanding and appreciation on regulation and water tariff. It will be a combination of lectures on tariff and regulation by an expert in the field and will be supported by case studies. In Asia, the cases of Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines will offer lessons that may be replicated by other water providers in the region.

Organizers

The workshop is being organized by the ADB-WOPs Team and Puncak Niaga Snd Bhd.

Target participants

The target participants are policymakers from government and water utilities from South and Southeast Asia who are members of the South Asian Water Utilities Network (SAWUN) and the South East Asian Water Utilities Network (SEAWUN) as well as prospective members of these 2 water networks and interested water utility members of national water associations in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Philippines.