Public Water Agency of the Year
Agência Nacional de Águas e Saneamento Básico (ANA), Brazil
What is it?
Brazil’s national water and sanitation regulator. Operating in a highly fragmented system of thousands of municipalities and multiple regulatory regimes, ANA sits at the centre of Brazil’s effort to bring coherence, credibility, and scale to sanitation reform.
What has it done?
In 2025, ANA used its expanded mandate under Brazil’s sanitation law to introduce national normative references for tariffs, risk allocation, contract adjustment, and compensation.
What makes it special?
- The introduction of new references created sector defining rules that resolved longstanding disputes and reduced uncertainty for operators and investors.
- ANA also set national targets for universal access and introduced common performance indicators, enabling regulators across Brazil to benchmark utilities and enforce accountability for the first time.
- ANA has shown how regulation can unlock delivery at scale. By creating consistency in a fragmented market, it has lowered barriers to entry, restored investor confidence, and catalysed a new wave of concessions and partnerships in underserved regions. This is regulatory leadership delivering tangible impact nationwide.
K-water
What is it?
South Korea’s national water authority, responsible for river basins, dams, bulk supply, and flood control under a single mandate. Managing the full water cycle at national scale, it operates as both infrastructure owner and system steward in an increasingly volatile climate.
What has it done?
K-water has completed one of the most ambitious digital transformations in the sector, achieving full system integration at national scale. Planning, infrastructure, and operations sit within one authority, enabling fast, coordinated decision-making across the entire water cycle. It has closed the gap between innovation and delivery. Technologies that remain pilots elsewhere have been embedded nationwide, proving its ability to scale with pace and discipline. K-water has redefined the role of water infrastructure. By combining resilience, digital control, and renewable energy, it positions water systems as productive national assets in a climate-constrained future.
What makes it special?
- In 2025, its Digital GARAM Plus platform, the world’s first basin-scale water digital twin, was deployed across all major river basins, enabling real-time monitoring, predictive simulation, and coordinated system control.
- At the same time, AI-driven treatment systems have been rolled out across 42 facilities, while Smart Water Network Management has reduced losses and strengthened reliability nationwide.
- Alongside this, K-water has expanded floating solar and hydrothermal energy, embedding decarbonisation into core operations.
Orange County Water District
What is it?
Orange County Water District safeguards one of the most heavily used groundwater basins in the United States, securing supply for 2.5 million people.
What has it done?
Operating in a region exposed to drought and import risk, OCWD has built a system that combines recharge, advanced treatment, and long-term planning into a single, resilient supply model, reinforcing its position as the global reference point for potable reuse.
What makes it special?
- In 2025, its Groundwater Replenishment System produced 118,000 acre-feet and surpassed 500 billion gallons since inception, recycling 100% of reclaimable flows into a dependable drinking water source. At the same time, it has responded decisively to emerging risks.
- OCWD’s PFAS programme has returned more than 50 wells to service, supported by over $150 million in funding. Meanwhile, Forecast Informed Reservoir Operations has unlocked new stormwater supply without new infrastructure.
- OCWD has achieved what few utilities can: local water independence. It has avoided imported water purchases for three consecutive years, shielding customers from cost and volatility. It moves from challenge to delivery with speed. From PFAS response to advanced reservoir operations, OCWD turns complex problems into implemented solutions with discipline and clarity.
Sharakat (Saudi Water Partnership Company)
What is it?
Saudi Arabia’s central offtaker and project developer for water and wastewater infrastructure. Owned by the Ministry of Finance, it leads the Kingdom’s PPP model, procuring desalination, treatment, storage, and transmission capacity from the private sector. In a nation defined by scarcity, Sharakat is the engine turning ambition into delivered infrastructure at scale.
What has it done?
Sharakat has built one of the most active water infrastructure pipelines in the world. By 2025, its portfolio included 15 projects in operation, with 6 under construction, 8 in tendering, and 19 in planning.
What makes it special?
- The group’s level of sustained procurement activity unmatched globally. This has been achieved while maintaining strong investor confidence. With around SAR 56 billion committed, Sharakat has consistently attracted international capital while delivering competitive tariffs and robust contractual structures.
- Sharakat has set the benchmark for water infrastructure procurement. Its standardised PPP model delivers complex projects with speed, transparency, and consistency in a challenging global market.
- Redefining the role of private finance in water — by structuring bankable, repeatable projects, Sharakat has unlocked sustained global investment at scale. The company operates with rare strategic clarity. Its pipeline is not just large, but coordinated, ensuring desalination, treatment, and storage develop as a single system for national water security.
Suruhanjaya Perkhidmatan Air Negara (SPAN), Malaysia
What is it?
Malaysia’s national water services regulator, covering Peninsular Malaysia and Labuan, and responsible for setting the standards that underpin utility performance and affordability across the country.
What has it done?
In 2025, SPAN led the most significant water tariff reform in over a decade.
What makes it special?
- The 2025 reform closed the gap between tariffs and the true cost of service while protecting affordability, unlocking new investment for infrastructure renewal and nonrevenue water reduction.
- SPAN also introduced pioneering regulatory requirements for data centres, mandating alternative water sources such as reuse, new tariff categories, and clear approval thresholds to safeguard domestic water security.
- SPAN regulates with bold vision. By combining tariff reform and hands on support for NRW reduction pilots already delivering measurable savings, it has positioned regulation as a driver of innovation, resilience, and national water security.