The excitement is building, and program details are emerging: The 2022 Danube Water Forum is only a few weeks away, and today we learn that a special invitation-only event is scheduled back-to-back with this first live meeting in years.

The 2022 Danube Water Forum on 28-29 June in Tirana, Albania will be the first live get-together of our community since the onset of the Covid-19 crisis. Details on the conference schedule will be published soon, but details about a back-to-back event on 30 June are already available: The one-day Conference “Benchmarking and Asset Management Nexus – Key tools for Regulators and Decision Makers” is scheduled on 30 June 2022 in Albania’s capital city Tirana.

This special event is organized jointly by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and the International Association of Water Service Companies in the Danube River Catchment Area (IAWD) in cooperation with the Water Supply and Sewerage Association of Albania (SHUKALB) and Water and Wastewater Works Association of Kosova (SHUKOS).

The Benchmarking and Asset Management Nexus Conference is an invitation-only event with a limited number of seats available for national institutions like ministries and regulators; national water and municipal associations, local government and utilities in the Danube region; representatives from relevant regional associations like IAWD, NALAS and WAREG; representatives from the EU, UNECE, GIZ, SDC, the World Bank and other bilateral donors and IFIs; Young Water Professionals; academia; private companies and NGOs.

Managing the Total Cost of Ownership

This event aims to “nexus” the important topics of Benchmarking and Asset Management in the water service sector with the roles of national water regulators and governments on the national and local level. The importance of this theme is huge and growing, with the water sector everywhere in the region facing the need for huge investments. S

trategic Asset management in the water sector is the efficient approach to managing infrastructure capital assets. It aims at minimizing the total cost of owning and operating them, while delivering a service level that meets customers' expectations. Sustainability of urban water services requires medium- and long-term infrastructure planning, including not only the renewal of strategies and tactics, but also the financial, organizational and information management aspects that are needed to ensure that stakeholders' needs and expectations are met over time.

No Strategic Asset Management without Benchmarking

Sound Strategic Asset Management means that components are regularly maintained over long planning cycles, and finally replaced when deterioration outweighs the benefit of further maintenance. Establishing and optimizing such planning, maintenance and replacement cycles relies heavily on the availability of performance data and performance assessment routines, in other words - no Strategic Asset Management without Benchmarking to establish objectives and targets, assess the distance to targets and the underlying infrastructures issues, define intervention priorities, compare alternative solutions and monitor the implementation of solutions.

In short, performance assessment and strategic asset management are complementing disciplines, and the Benchmarking and Asset Management Nexus Conference promotes viewing them together, throwing light on ongoing activities in the Danube region and inviting discussions among all stakeholders on the need to further support the relevant initiatives.

The Conference language will be English, with simultaneous translation into Albanian. Participation is free, but admission is invitation-only. If you are interested in joining and have not received a personal invitation by now, please inquire with your organization.