World Waternet and World Water Academy join forces to bring hands-on water knowledge worldwide

World Waternet and World Water Academy are teaming up to make practical water knowledge and skills accessible worldwide. Through digital innovative and accessible training and international peer-to-peer exchange, they aim to empower water professionals to deliver clean drinking water, safe sanitation, and climate-resilient water systems faster and smarter. The collaboration was officially confirmed on March 12 during Aquatech Amsterdam.

Joining forces for global impact

Water is life, but worldwide the water cycle is under pressure due to pollution, climate change, geopolitics and outdated or missing infrastructure. Through high-quality, practice-oriented peer-to-peer knowledge exchange, the organisations want to enable better water services. World Waternet aims to reach six million people by 2030.

High-quality, hands-on water training

World Water Academy has extensive substantive and didactic expertise, a wide range of courses and training and a state-of-the-art digital learning environment. Frodo van Oostveen, CEO of World Waternet: “Our mission is clear: to work on a healthy water cycle worldwide together with international water operators (WOPs). This starts with empowering (inter)national water professionals. By learning together, we not only share knowledge, but build lasting solutions to urgent water problems. Thanks to the catalytic collaboration with World Water Academy, we make training courses faster and more efficiently accessible to colleagues at other drinking water companies and water authorities, especially in countries where these professionals face enormous challenges. As a connecting factor, we think it is important to continue to listen to the demand and to deliver tailor-made solutions.”

What does the collaboration entail?

World Waternet and World Water Academy will jointly develop innovative practical digital training courses that water professionals worldwide can use immediately. Examples of peer-to-peer training include:

• drinking water and sanitation
• wastewater management
• climate adaptation and water management

Gabriëlle Knufman, director of World Water Academy, is enthusiastic: “We are passionately helping to build a good future for the water sector. Our approach is practice-oriented and up-to-date, completely in line with World Waternet’s ‘can do’ mentality. What drives us? To raise professional knowledge in the water sector to a higher level. That’s what we do it for. Our offer is not only aimed at promoting knowledge transfer, but also at strengthening competencies and skills. By continuously improving and responding to the latest developments, World Water Academy fulfills a key role for a skilled water sector, worldwide. By joining forces, we can increase our impact even more.”

Practical knowledge means SDG impact

Cooperation is not an end in itself. With these courses, both parties want to contribute directly to:

• making water knowledge more accessible worldwide
• more sustainable and resilient water systems
• achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6: clean water and sanitation for all

What does the future hold?

With the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), World Waternet and World Water Academy are laying the foundation for a long-term collaboration and is an example of Catalytic Impact & Action – in short, 1+1=3. It is important to strengthen each other on the basis of complementary expertise, and this is a great example of that.