The Water Partnerships emerged in India when the Water Engineers of the Change Management Group of the Tamil Nadu were invited in 2006-07 by the Maharashtra Jeevan Pratikaran (MJP-Maharashtra State Water Utility) as also the Jharkhand State Water Department, to train engineers and policy makers on change management and community partnerships in the water sector.
In a Conference Convened by Govt. of India in July 2008, for Knowledge sharing, the idea of Water Partnership was introduced. The SACOSAN Conference held in New Delhi in November 2008 gave the opportunity to share the WOPs concept with the Ministerial and Official delegation of SARRC countries. Enthused by the response the Govt. of India appointed the author as the Anchor Technical Adviser appointed by Govt., of India for establishing Water Partnerships in India. Evolving a water partnership among public utilities providing these services was engaging the serious attention.
These efforts culminated in a Conference Cum Workshop on Water Partnership India held at Chennai on 6th and 7th January 2011organised by the Centre of Excellence for Change(CEC) & UNICEF with the support of GOl. Knowledge Partners of the conference included IIT Madras, RPW Brussels, PSIRU London IWMI Sri Lanka and NUS Singapore.
The delegates of the conference who represented public organizations and civil society organizations show cased their successes & shared their problems so which helped to undertake a match making exercise linking the problem / challenges with the best practices in that area.
The Conference concluded with a declaration for the formation of "India Water Organisations Partnership" and with firm recommendations on the Structure, Objectives and Action Plan for the India WOPs.
On February 10th & 11th ,2012, representatives of government agencies from all over India gathered in Chennai, India at the International Unconference on “LEADING ORGANISATIONAL TRANSFORMATION FOR EFFECTIVE SERVICE DELIVERY” organized by CEC, to discuss challenges and approaches to effective service delivery, especially in the water and sanitation sector. The event was the first initiative of India Water operator Partnerships (WOPs). Over the course of the two days, participants from a variety of backgrounds including government agencies, the private sector, and NGOs shared ideas on how to transform their organisations to provide better services to their consumers.
The conference had various innovative and interactive sessions like CHALLENGE 360O, Deep Dive, Match Making etc that engaged the participants in discussions and problem solving.‘Inclusivity’ was discussed at large. The need to inculcate sustainability in service delivery requires the provision of infrastructure to support institutions and an integrated policy approach which accounts for ground reality is essential. Ultimately, the participants agreed that trust was the fundamental basis for all these interactions.
Mr. Sam Pitroda, Advisor to the Prime Minister of India, launched the second day of the event with a thought-provoking presentation on the role of technology in service delivery. Conclusions such as, ‘what differentiates between efficient and inefficient delivery is the process’ and ‘training is to be given across all levels, from water-man to engineers, towards achieving effective service delivery comprehensively’ were made post discussions.
Thought provoking discussions were brought up in the round tables during the course of the conference, which highlighted: