by Water Source
The Australian Water Partnership is supporting the Australian Water Association (AWA), the Pacific Water and Wastewater Association, and HunterH2O on a new knowledge-sharing initiative.
The Australian Telewater Network is a web-based initiative aimed at providing effective and increased access to Australian technical advice, knowledge and tools in developing countries that will assist in their preparedness, response and recovery from COVID-19.
Telewater aims to share approaches and lessons in managing COVID-19 risks by Australian water utilities with water utilities in Indonesia, Vietnam, and Cambodia, and more broadly across the Indo-Pacific region.
AWA has partnered with the Cambodian Water Supply Association, the Vietnam Water Supply and Sewerage Association, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and the Water Association of Indonesia to support utility response and recovery approaches to COVID-19.
On this page you will find:
Practical guidance
Preparation, response and recovery FAQs
Environmental surveillance of coronavirus
International webinars
Ozwater'20 Online session
Ozwater'21 ColoSSoS and Beyond
Challenges in Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia
Online Emerging Water Leaders Program
Further information and resources
Practical guidance
Information sheets
In collaboration with the Water Services Association of Australia and Dr Dan Deere from Water Futures, the Australian Water Association has produced practical guidance for keeping essential workers safe. The information sheets below are tailored to international water utilities.
INFORMATION SHEET IN VIETNAMESE
INFORMATION SHEET IN INDONESIAN
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has also developed the below guidance note on water, sanitation and health-care waste relevant to viruses (including coronaviruses). It also provides details on hand hygiene, sanitation, protecting WASH workers and supporting the continuation and strengthening of WASH services, especially in under-served areas.
Practical guidance videos
Together with our in-country partners we have developed a series of COVID-19 guidance videos sharing experience and lessons learnt from Australian, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Cambodia water utilities response to the pandemic.
Tools
Riverina Water have developed the following COVID-19 planned response tool to support their targeted response to different COVID-19 risk levels, varying from no confirmed cases of COVID-19 to a forced government shutdown.
Aqwest Water have developed an Occupational Health & Safety Handbook to assist workers in maintaining social distancing efforts, stopping the spread of the virus, and remaining healthy while working on site and from home.
Preparation, response and recovery FAQs
The following information and resources have been designed to give international utility representatives access to immediate technical advice by connecting them with Australian water and wastewater utility experts. The below information summarises key discussion threads and answers provided.
Do you have a question about water utility response and recovery approaches to COVID-19? Ask us!
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have also prepared a Water and COVID-19 FAQ page. For further information click here.
Environmental surveillance of coronavirus
The Australian Water Association and Water Research Australia have partnered to transfer leading Australian innovation in the environmental surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 to support the Governments of Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand to prepare, respond and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Click here to view the media release.
For further information on the project please click on the information sheets below:
INFORMATION SHEET IN VIETNAMESE
International webinars and virtual forums
The Australian Water Association, together with VWSA and PERPAMSI, facilitated two virtual forums for water and wastewater utilities across the Asia-Pacific to share approaches and lessons learned during COVID-19. The presentation slides from the Vietnamese and Indonesian virtual forums can be accessed below.
VIETNAM VIRTUAL FORUM PRESENTATION SLIDES
INDONESIA VIRTUAL FORUM PRESENTATION SLIDES
WATCH VIETNAM VIRTUAL FORUM (ENGLISH)
WATCH VIETNAM VIRTUAL FORUM (VIETNAMESE)
WATCH INDONESIA VIRTUAL FORUM (Indonesian)
The Australian Water Association and PERPAMSI facilitated a virtual forum in November 2020 for Indonesian and Australian water and wastewater utilities to share experiences and lessons learned from their response to the pandemic and present on progress made to overcome challenges faced.
INDONESIA VIRTUAL FORUM PRESENTATION SLIDES
WATCH INDONESIA VIRTUAL FORUM (INDONESIAN)
The Australian Water Association will be organising future virtual forums and webinars with Australian, Vietnamese, Cambodian and Indonesian water utilities.
The Indonesian Water Association (PERPAMSI) has also organised webinars recently in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. You can access the recordings by clicking on the links below.
Webinar: The Concept of Building a SCADA System
Webinar: Strategy for Improvement of Regional Utility Water Supply Performance
Webinar: Calculation and Submission of Drinking Water Tariff Adjustments
Webinar: Control of Commercial Water Loss Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Webinar: Management of Meter Reading and Account Billing during COVID-19
Webinar: Designing Effective Working from Home Procedures for Water Companies
Webinar Material: Utility Risk Management Facing the COVID-19 Pandemic
Ozwater'20 Online session
As part of the Ozwater'20 Online conference, a session on Tuesday, 9 June shared experiences from several Australian water utilities on their preparation, response and recovery approaches to ensure the continuity of essential water services and the health and safety of water and wastewater utility workers.
It also presented ground-breaking research from Water Research Australia on their ColoSSoS Project – an innovative, and collaborative Australia-wide investigation that aims to integrate reliable results of sewage testing for the SARS-CoV-2 virus with health data for COVID-19.
Ozwater'21 ColoSSoS and Beyond
The ColoSSoS Project – Collaboration on Sewage Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 – is a major national collaborative effort, that has seen experts in health, microbiology, laboratory testing and wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) all come together to foster research and create positive impact throughout our communities.
More than a year after Water Research Australia commenced the ColoSSoS Project to support the nation’s pandemic response, you can learn more about its impact, the research behind it and what it means for the future of wastewater-based epidemiology. Over two days WaterRA and a panel of experts showcased the amazing work being conducted around the country and internationally on sewage surveillance for SARS-CoV-2. Session 1 highlights the sewage sampling research, including passive sampling, genomic sequencing and interlaboratory trials. Session 2 highlights how the collaboration and research has been implemented and adopted by industry, as well as capability building both nationally and internationally, with discussion focussed on industry impact and future application of WBE.
To receive password access to the session recordings please get in touch with our International Team.
Challenges in Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia
In collaboration with its partner associations, AWA has undertaken surveys of water utilities in Australia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia to understand challenges, information needs and response approaches to COVID-19.
Summary of challenges
A summary of the key challenges identified in the surveys of water operators are summarised below.
Cambodia
- Network expansion constraints (labour / access to site / etc.)
- Employees remaining at home and not wanting to come to work, collect bills and/or interact with customers
- Ability for utility to repay existing loans and/or attract new finance
- Reduced ability of customers to pay utility bills on time
- Increased water demand through customers staying at home during a low water security / dry period
- Increased cost of water production
- Interruptions to supply chain (e.g. chemical shortage)
Vietnam
- Shortage of supply chain (chemicals, equipment, etc.)
- Shortage of PPE for staff
- Increased cost of water production (higher price of chemicals)
- Reduction in revenue
- Increased water consumption (people staying home and are required to have more frequent hand washing)
- Staff avoiding manual water meter reading, collecting bill payments and dealing with emergencies
Indonesia
- Maintaining connection rates and providing water to informal settlements
- Ability to freeze or reduce payment of water bills for certain customer groups and manage revenue loss
- Ability to undertake meter reading and account billing
- Implementing work-from-home arrangements
- Ability to manage risks during and after COVID-19
- Obtaining tariff subsidies from the local government to provide support to customers
Following the virtual forum in Indonesia, PERPAMSI and AWA have summarised the challenges and priorities facing Indonesian water and wastewater utilities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
VIEW SUMMARY OF PRIORITY ISSUES FACING PDAM AND PD PAL
Summary of poll results from virtual forums
A series of polls were taken during the Vietnam and Indonesia COVID-19 virtual forums to further understand the challenges participants are facing.
Vietnam
- 57% of participants reported impacts to supply chains, as well as changes to spending and reporting requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic
- 29% of participants reported their ability to manage organisation risks during the COVID-19 pandemic as their most important challenge
- 63% of participants requested further support in supply chain risk management and business impact assessments during and after the COVID-19 pandemic
Indonesia
- 60% of participants reported impacts to customer concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic
- 42% of participants reported maintaining supply and servicing public facilities as the most important challenge
- 47% of participants requested further support in incident management guidance during and after the COVID-19 pandemic
Knowledge identified from Australian utilities
The knowledge products identified from Australian utilities include:
Guidance materials
- Signage / symptoms charts
- Information notes for water operators
- Ergonomic guidance for home-based work
- Incident management guidance specific for COVID-19 incident
Tools
- Risk/restriction matrix
- COVID-19 response matrix
- Dedicated COVID-19 webpages of utilities
- Zoom and MS Teams Hygiene practices/advice
- COVID-19 OHS Handbook for staff
- Pandemic Response Plan
- Online Work Order
- Risk assessments for field-based work
- Business Continuity Plans
- Business Impact Assessments
- Organisational pandemic plan
- COVID response team (daily meetings, keeping staff informed)
Other resources
- Staff communication plans
- Customer communication packages for contractors
- Managing supply chain risks
- Communicating across the workforce the utility's priority
- Financial support packages, customer hardship approaches
- Incident Management Plan (power and/or network failures)
- Crisis management activation
- Science on the fate and inactivation of COVID-19
The outcomes from these surveys will help shape future activities, ensuring the supply of Australian knowledge meets the demand in overseas countries.
Online Emerging Water Leaders Program
Funded by the Australian Water Partnership and facilitated by the Australian Water Association, the focus of the Emerging Water Leaders Program is to create a digital enabling environment for sharing knowledge and experiences with respect to common challenges the water sectors face in each country and to facilitate mentoring activities to support the development of YWPs across the South East Asia and South Asia region.
The program brings together YWPs from across Australia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Nepal.
Having joined the program in July 2021, the participant cohort was divided into evenly dispersed working groups to prepare presentation materials for Vietnam-Australia Water Week in September.
In preparation for this event, each working group was required to explore the inhibiting factors preventing the development of YWP networks in the region, as well as widespread technical and policy challenges influencing the regional sector. At Vietnam-Australia Water Week the working groups presented their findings; and offered high impact solutions that could potentially be realized through enhanced YWP activities across the region.
Program working groups are now developing and designing collaborative Australian, South East Asian and Nepalese programs to unlock opportunities for the next generation of our region's YWPs.
WATCH THE EMERGING WATER LEADERS KICK-OFF MEETING
WATCH THE VIETNAM-AUSTRALIA WATER WEEK EMERGING WATER LEADERS FORUM
VIEW THE VIETNAM-AUSTRALIA WATER WEEK EMERGING WATER LEADERS PRESENTATIONS
VIEW THE VIETNAM-AUSTRALIA WATER WEEK EMERGING WATER LEADERS AUDIENCE POLL RESULTS
Further information and resources
International
Advisory note: Ensuring the safety of your building water system post COVID-19 restrictions
Alert Level 4 to Level 3 Changes for Watercare NZ
American Water Works Association COVID-19 resources
Business Continuity Planning for Water Utilities: Guidance Document
Business Continuity Plan Template
Canadian Water and Wastewater Association COVID-19 resources
Global Water Operators’ Partnership Alliance COVID-19 resources
How COVID-19 is changing the world: A statistical perspective
Isle utilities COVID-19 resources and webinars
New Zealand COVID-19 Construction Protocols
PERPAMSI video: What can PDAM do to prevent coronavirus?
Preparedness and Response Practices to Support Water System Resilience
Responses for Talent Managers in Utility Companies
The response of HAMBURG WASSER to COVID-19 and lessons learned
Utilities’ Support to Inclusive WASH Access
Vietnam: a COVID-19 success story
Water Utility COVID-19 Pandemic Management Plan – key guidelines
WHO operational planning guidelines to support country preparedness and response
World Bank: Financial Impact Assessment Tool for Water and Sanitation Providers (in Excel format here)
Australia
The AWA and other organisations have developed a number of practical resources and information to support Australian water utilities during COVID-19, linked below.
A practical guide on COVID-19 for the water industry
Recommendations for Employment & Economic Activity by the Water Industry
Water Research Australia: SARS-CoV-2 Known and Unknowns
Coronavirus in water environments: Occurrence, persistence and concentration methods
We welcome your contributions to share positive messages of how you are responding to COVID-19. If you have any practical experiences you'd like to share, get in touch with our International Team. Or share them with us on our social media channels.
Share
