Key for an urban water utility to provide to its citizens is having a strong enabling environment is. Knowing its strengths and weaknesses is essential.

WaterworX is a public private partnership between all ten Dutch water utilities, their local partners and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. It aims to promote the successful achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 6 by providing up to 10 million people with sustainable access to drinking water by 2030.

In 2017-2018, a consortium of IRC and IHE Delft, undertook on request of Directorate-General for International Cooperation (DGIS), the Netherlands, a scoping study into the urban utility enabling environment of six countries (Colombia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda and Vietnam).

Objective of the study was to:

• provide an analysis of the current strength of the enabling environment for urban water service provision in each country
• provide an analysis of the potential actions to strengthen the enabling environment.

The final study report provided a recommendation with a shortlist of countries where positive interventions in the enabling environment can be undertaken in partnership with Dutch Embassy and WaterworX partners as part of the overall WaterWorX programme.

Our services included

• Desk-research
• Semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, including utilities being established through WaterworX
• 6 country reports and a synthesis report