15 July 2020 / Vienna, Austria
Virtual event with real-world impact: The Danube Water Program Steering Committee Meeting
Contributed by:
Voice of the Danube
15 July 2020

On July 13th, the DWP Steering Committee gathered for its scheduled meeting, albeit not physically. Videoconferences have become standard in the COVID-19 era, and the Danube Water Program team has gathered rich experience with the available internet tools.

For readers not familiar with this program: The Danube Water Program was launched in May 2013, aiming at strong utilities, smart policies and sustainable services in a sector serving 80 million customers in the Danube region. Managed by IAWD in cooperation with the World Bank and with funding from the Austrian Ministry of Finance, the Danube Water Program supports a wide range of activities to improve the situation of the sector, cooperating with line ministries, regulators, water utility associations, and local government representatives of a dozen countries in South-East Europe.

An update on the current third phase of the program topped the agenda of the meeting, reporting the program activities, budget, and indicators. Subsequently, the Steering Committee discussed the status and timeline of pending activities, especially those related to the impact of the COVD-19 crisis and its mitigation.  

The meeting also saw a premiere: IAWD presented its freshly launched "Voice of the Danube" full-spectrum digital water service sector platform. In other circumstances, the participants might have raised a glass to toast the successful launch, but alas! there is no sparkling wine in cyberspace.

VoD - The latest @iawd.at

DANUBIS.org stands for Danube Utility Benchmarking and Information Sharing. The DANUBIS.org Water Platform is an online knowledge space of resources on water and wastewater services in South-East, Eastern, and Central Europe. DANUBIS.org is jointly managed by the World Bank and IAWD, the International Association of Water Supply Companies in the Danube River Catchment Area.