WWX WOP Philippines Phase 2 PEWUP (Performance Enhancement Water Utilities in the Philippines) is one of the 19 Water Operator Partnerships (WOPs) of phase 2 of the WaterWorX Programme. WaterWorX is the joint initiative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and all 10 water companies in the Netherlands to give access to drinking water and sanitation to 10 million poor people worldwide by 2030.

Under phase 1 the project partners were: Bogo Water District, Carcar Water District and Toledo City Water District on Cebu island and Bayawan Water District on Negros island.

Under phase 2 the project partners are: Ayungon Water District, Balamban Water District, Bayawan Water District, Carcar Water District, Dalaguete Water District and Toledo City Water District. As of 2023 Metro Cebu Water District will also become one of the project partners.

Phase 1 of the project focused on the so called Water Districts. The focus in phase 1 was on “getting the basics right” by means of capacity building of the 4 water districts, connecting approximately 50,000 poor people to safely managed water supply and small investments to improve operations. The capacity building is done by pairing Dutch employees of water utilities with their peers in the Philippine utilities. The project also provided some materials in 2020 to assist the partners in relieving the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The capacity building was done on various topics: Leadership, Personal Development, Business planning, Safety and Crisis management, Management Information Systems, Asset Management, GIS, Hydraulic modelling, Maintenance (software), Non-revenue Water reduction, Water Source development, Well drilling and maintenance, Water treatment, Project Management, Customer surveys (mWater app), Energy saving and audits. 

With project partner PAWD a benchmarking pilot has been conducted and webinars and online master classes for all 534 Water Districts have been held. 

The main objective of Phase 2 is the improvement of the managerial, operational and financial performance of the focus project partners by providing them with technical assistance on the selected work processes. The target is to increase the maturity level of the selected work processes.  

The second objective of the project is the contribution to the SDG6 goals, by giving access to safely managed water to 137,500 people directly and 27,488 people by indirect TA related autonomous growth. 

The national enabling environment is the third pillar of the project, with 5 targeted activities: 

    In cooperation with the strategic partners PAWD, LWUA and NEDA the project will set up a national benchmark to annually assess the results of the Philippine water sector.  
    The webinars and online master classes that were initiated in 2020 for only water districts, will continue for the whole water sector and will be branded as VEI-academy Philippines. The target is to organize at least 15 webinars and master classes per year on various topics. 
    The improvement of the water sector is one of the objectives of the national benchmark which will be implemented as part of the project. 
    A national capacity development needs assessment will be done. With this information PEWUP will align the topics of the webinars and master classes with the needs of the sector. 
    A national NRW approach will be developed. Trainings on this approach will be given via the VEI-academy Philippines. 

Proving that small water districts can operate in an operational and financially sustainable way will assist in creating arguments for change. It will be a strong voice when it comes from more than one water district!