AWWA Publishes Collaboration Study Report

AWWA’s Technical & Educational Council (TEC) has just published the “National Inventory of Regional Collaboration among Water and Wastewater Utilities.” Developed by the Strategic Management Practices Committee under the guidance of the TEC Management & Leadership Division, the Report evaluated numerous styles and types of collaborative efforts. The goal was to identify areas of collaboration, structures to facilitate collaborations, and barriers to collaborative efforts. This new information has been synthesized with previously published literature on regional collaborations to demonstrate to utilities various models of successful collaboration.

While no two collaborative efforts are identical, the Report determined that, “The keys to success regardless of the collaboration type or mechanisms was to build trust among the collaborators, facilitated by transparent processes and open communication, that helped to build relationships between the collaboratives that would persist across leadership changes. The important message is that regional collaboration can provide a range of benefits and a specific collaborative model is not necessary to realize these benefits.”

Click here to read the report: National Inventory of Regional Collaboration Among Water and Wastewater Utilities