National WOPs are taking place in a number of countries, but as they are generally small in nature and self-funded, they often go under the radar of global WOPs monitoring. Although few studies have been conducted on National WOPs, they are assumed to carry many of the advantages of south-south partnerships: such as easier knowledge sharing owing to similarities in culture, language, laws and policies.

In May 2009, BWS staff and the former General Manager of CCWD met at a regional Caribbean water-related meeting. This first contact led to exchanges on hand-held meter-readers and, three months later, an informal visit of Customer Service staff from Belize to shadow their peers at CCWD. In May 2010, the heads of BWS and CCWD again met informally during a NRW workshop organized by the IADB in Belize, where they discussed partnership possibilities. Soon afterwards, they asked the WOP-LAC platform…