Strong showing in IAM Initiative proposal kick-off meeting

A first open meeting presenting iGPI, the National Initiative for Infrastructure Asset Management of urban water services took place at LNEC (Lisbon) on October 7th, 2:30-4:00pm. Over 100 technical managers, asset managers, planners and consultants turned up to hear about and discuss LNEC's proposed collective partnership programme to assist water utilities in developing their asset management plans.

This capacity-building formula has been successfully used by LNEC in the last decade, where a number of utilities receive training and technical guidance under a common, tiered project framework with bi- or tri-monthly result presentation. The networking effect is usually a major plus, and cost-sharing among participating utilities helps make this type of programme accessible to a wider audience. The programme is promoted by a consortium of LNEC with IST and Addition (all 3 are Aware-P partners), and is expected to start in April 2012 with up to 15 utilities, for a total duration of 17 months.