Water System Capacity Development Support

Summary of the project

This project's main goal is to enhance the capacity of water systems in North Carolina to provide the public with safe drinking water. We address two topics: inter-system partnership and cooperation and financial management. We created an inventory of current practices, and provide guidance and training on financial management and on creating inter-system partnerships.

Who funded this project?

This project was funded in FY09 by the Public Water Supply Section of the NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Beneficiaries of the project

Water utility managers: We provided documents and training materials to utility managers describing the range of inter-system partnerships, from bulk sales agreements to consolidation, with an assessment of current practices in North Carolina, and guidelines on writing contracts between systems participating in a partnership. We also provided documents, tools and trainings to assist managers plan for their utility's financial future. Some tools present to the managers important financial information about their system (such as in the Rates Dashboards).

The North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) : We worked with several divisions within DENR to link up, verify and supplement data within their databases of water systems. We provided an assessment of current inter-system partnerships, including interconnections between systems, to DENR to provide a broader understanding of what utilities are currently doing to manage stresses such as times of water shortages.

North Carolina residents : In order to supply customers with safe, clean drinking water for a very long period of time, water utility staff need to continue developing their managerial and financial capacity in addition to their technical expertise. By providing training and documents to water utility managers and technical assistance providers, we aimed to enhance the managerial and financial capabilities of water systems. Creating partnerships between water systems has been known to improve service provision, whether by decreasing average cost of service, improving quality or increasing knowledge and expertise. We produced documents and training materials that provide relevant information on creating and sustaining inter-system partnerships to assist water systems that are considering partnerships in the future in order to provide higher quality of service to their customers. We also provided direct assistance to various communities that are currently in the process of attempting to create regional partnerships of water systems in order to serve residents who do not have access to centralized water service.

Contact

Please contact Shadi Eskaf, Glenn Barnes or Jeff Hughes with any questions: EFC contacts page.