In 2021, the Utility Benchmarking Program (UBP) for the Danube region utilities will look closely at the the data of the year 2020 and the impact of an unparalleled global health crisis on water services on the local, national and regional levels. In a condensed 75-minute online event on 8 June, UBP representatives introduced new benchmarking tools, once again stating the obvious: If you haven't joined the program yet, do it now.

Moderated by IAWD's Philip Weller, the meeting took off with a small but audible bang: IAWD President and Deputy Managing Director of Vienna Water announced that Vienna's municipal water services has decided to join the Utility Benchmarking Program to both demonstrate the importance of the issue and to profit from comparing performance indicators on an international level.

Multiple reasons to join were then brought by IAWD's Katharina Schilling who walked the audience through the Utility Benchmark Program with its regional, sub-regional and national Hubs and supporting structures, national Hub coordinator Viktoria Iskova, reporting about the Program's progress in the Ukraine, and Danube Hub coordinator Aleksandar Krstic, who gave detailed insights into the Hub's 2021 cycle, announcing new features like custom index comparison, composite indicators and a weekly “open doors” session, dedicated to mutual support.

Professionals like Sokol Xhafa (Kosovo) and Darius Bor (Romania)  then weighed in with their individual benchmarking program experiences and an unanimous recommendation to join now if you haven't joined yet, and to enjoy the convincing advantages of being inside instead of being left out.