Around 40 water utility leaders from Africa and Latin America, as well as members of the World Bank, recently traveled to Valencia (Spain) to participate in a training course on the digital transformation of water management. Idrica, a company specializing in integrated water cycle management in different parts of the world, was in charge of delivering and hosting this “Digital Training Week”, as part of the digital consultancy project that the company is carrying out for the World Bank Group.
“The Digital Training Week was extremely useful for the client countries we serve, as it could have a crucial impact for them. The water and sanitation utilities we work with are able to transform data into operational knowledge, which helps them make better decisions so they can build a resilient water future. In addition, they will be able to make further progress towards customer-centricity,” said Jean-Martin Brault, the leader of the World Bank’s Digital Water team.
During the intense four-day event, several Idrica experts, in collaboration with the World Bank’s Digital Water team, gave training sessions on key areas for the digital transformation of the water sector. The topics covered included data management such as Big Data and Artificial Intelligence, information security, E-billing, asset management, micro and macro metering, and leak detection. The World Bank’s knowledge of the countries and their specific contexts was fundamental for the team leaders to learn and implement these tools in their operations at country level.
Another important part of the event were four one-on-one sessions in which water utilities met with digital water experts, Idrica, and the World Bank team leaders to discuss and seek solutions to the challenges on the table.
Attendees were able to visit a number of facilities run by Global Omnium, the water utility that launched Idrica. These visits included EMIVASA’s digital twin, the GOlab (Global Omnium’s Technology Center), and the utility’s operating headquarters. Finally, participants were given a behind-the-scenes tour around the Oceanografic, the largest aquarium in Europe.
Idrica’s role: framework contract with the World Bank to support strategic digital activities
This training program is part of the framework contract Idrica signed with the World Bank to support strategic digital activities. In this project, Idrica provides a specialized consultancy and advisory service to respond to the technological challenges that the World Bank has identified in the water sector in certain countries. This service draws on the expertise of the World Bank’s specialists and Idrica’s experience in digital transformation and the application of innovative solutions to sustainably optimize the use of resources.
Idrica was able to transmit its knowledge, tools and the methods it uses in its digital transformation consultancy services through this course, with the aim of identifying the needs and challenges facing the various organizations and analyzing their processes.
However, far from being a solely theoretical exercise, action plans were developed under the guidance of the country experts at the World Bank, so that each operator can deploy their digital transformation plans, as well as develop the capabilities of their teams to upscale these digital projects. As Jaime Barba, Idrica’s CEO, pointed out during the course’s introduction, “the important thing in any digital transformation strategy is to change processes in the company (…) and this means starting with people, if you want it to work”.
Both attendees and organizers highlighted the success of the training week and the quality of the knowledge imparted. In the words of Vanessa Fontana, a Project Manager at Idrica and the training coordinator, “it has been a highly rewarding experience, with expertise being shared between different countries and cultures, each with our different realities in the immense world of water digitization.” Both the World Bank and Idrica, who have been working together for three years, were very satisfied with the project’s outcomes and expressed their interest in continuing this endeavor. “We hope this will be the first of many weeks of training,” said Jean Martin Brault, on behalf of the World Bank.
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