Merger of IWSA and IAWQ The
association traces its historical roots back to the
International Water Supply Association (IWSA), established in June 1947 in
Harrogate,
United Kingdom, changing its name to
International Water Service Association (IWSA) in the mid-1990s, and the
International Association on Water Quality (IAWQ), which was originally formed as the
International Association for Water Pollution Research (IAWPR) in 1962, formally constituted in June 1965 also in the same city, renamed
International Association of Water Pollution Research and Control (IAWPRC) in March 1982 and adopting IAWQ in May 1992. Both were global membership
organizations – one related to
drinking water utility and the other related to
wastewater utility – dedicated to advancing
research and
best practices through international
collaboration, but represented two distinct causes,
perspectives,
histories, and membership profiles. The organizations had a series of activities centered on recurring
congresses, which in the later years would include specialty
conferences and regional conferences for individuals without the means of attending the biennial events. The self-managed specialist group framework initially developed within IAWPRC would eventually evolve into the cornerstone of IWA's operational approach extending beyond IWA's biennial congresses, and be further enriched by clusters and programs formed by specialist groups within IWA. In the history of IWSA, the focus of publication of journals was smaller compared to IAWQ. Discussions regarding a merger between the IWSA and IAWQ commenced in 1996. Given their shared location in London for several years, the idea of a merger had long been considered. Ultimately, negotiations for the merger were conducted through what later became known as the
Merger Coordinating Group (MCG), who held a last meeting in London on 12-13 May 1999. On 23 January 1998, the then
presidents, Nicholas Hood of IWSA and Thomas Keinath of IAWQ, signed a
memorandum of understanding, paving the way for the
ratification of the merger between the two organizations. After receiving mandates from their respective
boards of directors to the formal proposal, IWSA in May and IAWQ in June the same year, the full merger was scheduled to take place by 1 August 1999. The merger was formally sealed during a signing event held at the
Stockholm Water Week in August 1999. Under UK Charity Law, the merger officially dissolved IWSA and IAWQ, giving rise to the establishment of a new association. The two professional, technical associations with separate
cultures, and working methods eventually merged on 7 September 1999 to form the International Water Association (IWA), creating one international organization focused on the full water cycle. The merger was motivated by the
streamlining of operations and a desire to accumulate critical mass. Legally signed and created at the end of July 1999, the IWA was
ceremonially launched at the final IWSA 22nd World Water Congress and Exhibition, held in
Buenos Aires, Argentina in 18–24 September 1999, in collaboration with AIDIS Argentina. IWA was operational in their new
headquarters on
Caxton Street,
London, United Kingdom from January 2000. Included in the merger process was a new member leadership structure, the
Scientific and Technical Council (STC) and a
Management and Policy Council (MPC), and the creation of two subsidiaries: IWA Publishing (IWA) and the IWA Foundation.
Early years, new agendas and offices The first congress under the auspices of the new organization was held in
Paris in 2000 with nearly 2.500 delegates attending 450 oral presentations, 750 poster presentations and 4 workshops and seminars. In 2009, IWA launched a biennial Development Congress, with
Mexico City as the inaugural location, as a key component of its comprehensive agenda to drive advancements in the
developing world. Together with the America’s Clean Water Foundation (ACWF), IWA sponsored the first
World Water Monitoring Day in October 2003, handled the joint coordination of the program together with the
Water Environment Federation (WEF) from July 2006 until January 2015, where the coordinator role was transferred to
EarthEcho International. By September 2016, the membership numbers at IWA had increased to 6,295 members, which was an increase from 4,901 members in 2007. Water professionals had increasingly discussed and agreed on the necessity for a consistent framework within which to ensure drinking water quality standards, which was further emphasized by the
World Health Organization's development of the 3rd edition of its
Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality (GDWQ), emphasizing proactive risk-based management alongside end-product monitoring for compliance. A generic framework for water quality management was crafted during workshops in
Bonn, Germany in October 2001 and refined in February 2004, resulting in the
Bonn Charter for Safe Drinking Water, launched by IWA in September 2004 during the 4th WWC&E. The
Bonn Charter for Safe Drinking Water advocates for the adoption of
Water Safety Plans (WSPs), in alignment with the WHO GDWQ. By 2015, the target year for the
United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG) from 2009, the 2030 agenda of the UN
Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) was embraced as a new main water-focused issue of concern among the many other global priorities. In March 2015, AquaRating was announced as the world's first rating agency for the water sector by establishing the international standard for assessing water and sanitation services provision, jointly developed by the
Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and the IWA. On 1 September 2016, the
World Bank and IWA announced the establishment of a partnership surrounding the reduction of water losses. In a partnership with
OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), the IWA published a report on 26 February 2017, emphasizes the critical need for swift and substantial action to significantly enhance wastewater treatment, reuse, and recycling. At an official ceremony on 14 November 2007, a major operational office in
The Hague, the
Netherlands, was opened, which followed the opening of regional offices in
Beijing, Republic of China (7 December 2006) and
Singapore (5 June 2007), and later in
Nairobi, Kenya (2009/2010),
Bucharest, Romania (24 November 2009) and
Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, United States (2016). A regional office in
Chennai, India was established in May 2018 to coordinate the organization's activities across
South Asia, and hosts a sub-unit of the IT and Digital Transformation team. A collaboration agreement that established IWA's new Global Operations Hub in
Nanjing, Republic of China, was signed on 22 October 2018 to host the Asia & Oceania Regional Member Engagement and Service, Water Intelligence, IWA Learn, and Event, becoming fully operational in July 2019, and staying active until late 2022 or early 2023.
Brexit let to the shutdown of the association's operations in the
Netherlands and the transfer of activities back to the
United Kingdom, where IWA and IWA Publishing has shared an expanded office in London since July 2020. ==Management==