Dr Károly Kovács PhD, chairman of the Hungarian Water Partnership (HWP), and CEO of Pureco has been selected as a member of the Strategic Council of the African Water and Sanitation Association (AfWASA). With his knowledge, skills, experience and the drinking water and wastewater treatment solutions offered by HWP, Dr Kovács can contribute to addressing the challenges and issues facing Africa's water and sanitation sector today.
The United Nations lists these close-to-consumer solutions as technologies that help accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. These services are developed by HWP member companies - especially by Pureco Group of Companies - and then implemented together with international partners, are well-functioning providing the supply of healthy drinking water and wastewater treatment (faecal sludge management) in the developing world in an affordable way.
Building on the successful drinking water and sanitation projects already constructed by HWP member companies in Africa, the cooperation between the African and European water-related professional organisations started at the 2023 UN water conference, where an MoU was signed between two major pan-continental professional organisations, AfWASA and the European Water Association (EWA).
The agreement supports sharing experience, knowledge transfer, development and implementation of affordable and sustainable solutions to water challenges through scientific and technological research, innovation and sustainable water utility development.
The parties have since worked together in several areas (see IWA Conference, Kigali, 2023).
Indeed since 2019, the African Water Association (AfWA), which became the African Water and Sanitation Association (AfWASA) in February 2023, has embarked on a profound process of reforming its governance and management structures to increase its efficiency as part of its mandate to build the capacities of actors in the sector in Africa.
It is in this sense a new Strategic Council (SC) was set up with the following tasks and responsibilities:
- providing advice to the Executive Board on the strategic topics of the Association at the request of the latter,
- supporting the implementation of AfWASA strategic plan,
- providing appropriate orientation advice to the Executive Office for the achievement of its objectives,
- stimulating, and approving, the creation of Specialists Groups and promoting their activities as well as specific working groups that could be set up,
- approving the activities of Specialist Groups or any other working group created within AfWASA,
- coordinating the activities of existing professional networks, Encouraging and identify task forces
The mandate in the AfWASA Strategic Committee is a priority for the Hungarian water sector. Dr. Károly Kovács's commitment and professional experience have brought recognition to the knowledge and skills of the Hungarian water industry as well.
Congratulations, Dr Kovács for this appointment!
We will report regularly on the achievements of this pan-continental professional cooperation.
(In the pictures are Mr Sylvian Usher, former President of AfWASA and Dr Károly Kovács, chairman of HWP and past President of EWA. The first picture shows the signing of the EWA-AfWASA Memorandum of Understanding at the HWP side event at the UN Water Conference in New York in March 2023. The second picture shows Mr. Slyvian Usher, former President of AfWASA, and Dr. Károly Kovács PhD - and between the two Mr Hamanth Kasan, President-elect of the International Water Association (IWA) - at the HWP side event at the IWA Conference in Kigali in December 2023).
