On Aug. 27, international water partnership initiative WaterWorX officially secured its third phase of funding, allowing VEI and its partners to extend a collaborative model that relies on peer-to-peer utility management. Between 2022 and 2025, the international water partnership programme reached more than 4.56 million people directly or indirectly with water supply or sanitation services, comfortably outpacing its Phase II target of 3.55 million. As utilities across Africa, Asia, and other regions confront challenges, this confirmed funding phase anchors long-term institutional resilience as the foundational prerequisite for sustainable water access.
Beyond Concrete: The Power of Long-Term Water Operator Partnerships
Infrastructure alone cannot guarantee a reliable tap or a functioning sanitation system.
Rather than deliver a temporary technical intervention, these peer-to-peer agreements embed knowledge and improved working practices within the partner utility. To track this shift, WaterWorX uses a performance assessment methodology based on the World Bank’s Utility Turnaround Framework. Partner utilities assess their own working processes, rating them across maturity levels from elementary to good performance and, ultimately, world class performance. Data from 2025 indicates that participating utilities completed work on 71% of their targeted subprocesses, a sharp climb from 58% in 2024 and 43% in 2023.
Tackling High Connection Costs in Wa, Ghana
The partnership helped residents obtain affordable household connections while installing public standpipes in neighbourhoods that remained underserved. Through close cooperation between the utility and community leaders, the initiative fostered broad participation, contributing to 10,724 people gaining access to water and sanitation services during 2025.
Confronting Non-Revenue Water and Subsidence in Semarang, Indonesia
Pipes can lie two to four metres below the surface, complicating leak detection and network maintenance.
Scaling Impact Across Global Communities
A further 776,398 people were reached through activities to which the programme made an indirect contribution. As WaterWorX enters its third phase, it continues an approach that combines peer-to-peer cooperation, operational expertise and institutional capacity development.
