Happy New Year, community! Relaxed and rested from our break we kick off the new year by reporting with great satisfaction that IAWD and Aqua Publica Europea have concluded an ongoing discussion by signing a Memorandum of Understanding as a basis for future cooperation.

Those who were present at the Danube Water Conference in May last year will remember the interesting presentation Milo Fiasconaro gave on communicating with and for association members. Mr. Fiasconaro is the Executive Director of Aqua Publica Europea (APE), the European Association of Public Water Operators. Headquartered in Belgium, APE unites publicly owned water and sanitation services and other stakeholders, working to promote public water management at both European and international level. APE is an operator-led association that looks for efficient solutions that serve public interests rather than corporate ones.

IAWD and APE share common ground, both being non-profit organisations with a strong commitment to promote and support efficient, sustainable high-quality water services and the protection of water resources, and both keenly understanding the value of cooperation, knowledge exchange and mutual support. It is therefore no surprise that talks and discussions about establishing a collaboration framework have been going on for some time.

Now the result is out: IAWD and Aqua Publica Europea have signed a Memorandum of Understanding as a basis for ongoing cooperation.

The memorandum states a wide range of opportunities for cooperation, including:

• communication, especially in joint PR efforts and event promotion, 
• targeted cooperation on occasion of annual events and in organizing webinars like the DWP KnowNow series or APE’s Technical Workshop in the framework of the Water Erasmus iniative
• organization of a joint session at a relevant international/European event 
• coordinated advocacy efforts related to EU or international water-related policy-making
• joint position papers on relevant topics 
• joint project proposals where project calls are relevant to both associations.

Joining forces to make things happen is a great way to start 2024. We take the occasion to wish all our readers health, happiness and success in all their efforts, and hope that we can keep reporting good news.