South Africa : New collaboration phase between IOWater and Rand Water
Updated : 18/03/2015
A new phase of the collaboration started in 2012 between IOWater and Rand Water began in 2014: Rand Water is now a member of IOWater’s Board of Directors. Rand Water supplies drinking water to 12 million customers, including the inhabitants of Johannesburg. The company has around 3,500 employees.
Capacity building is critical to Rand Water. In this regard, the Rand Water Academy (RWA) was created with the goal of becoming a training center for water professionals.
The partnership was launched at the end of the visit in 2012 of senior officers of Rand Water to IOWater’s Training Center in France (NWTC).
Very quickly, under the project of creating the RWA in Johannesburg, it was decided to annually send engineers and technicians to be trained at the NWTC in Limoges.
A training of trainers took place during the summers of 2012 and 2013 on various topics. These courses were designed to increase the knowledge of South African engineers on chosen topics, but also to familiarize these trainers to the use of educational units for practical work.
In 2013, IOWater organized a one-week study tour in France on the management of changes occurring in water and sanitation services.
That same year, IOWater provided support to the definition, design and startup of the RWA.
Finally, on 25 July 2013, Rand Water and IOWater signed their Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which confirmed the partnership already started.
In 2014, collaboration increased: 8 training courses took place on the premises of the RWA. A training of trainers was also held in France. RWA executives visited the Training Center of the Gdansk Water Foundation in Poland, which was initiated in the 1990s in partnership with IOWater.
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