2008 saw the consolidation of a new kind of GWP partnership: the Karachi Water Partnership (KWP). This urban water partnership was launched in April 2007 with support from GWP Pakistan. In December 2008, KWP completed its first phase in building the capacity of institutions to improve water management in urban areas. KWP signed seven memorandums of understandings with city-based institutions, including the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board. It also set up a Town Area Water Partnership in one of the 18 Towns of Karachi. This partnership served as a model, reaching over one million people with water-saving guidelines for homes, schools, factories and offices. It also began a school water rehabilitation programme, and set up ‘women and water’ networks.
Of the 300-plus partners in the KWP, each one signed a pledge to conserve and better manage water and sewerage at home and places of work/study, and in public spaces.
During 2008, three conferences (including a partners’ conference with 250 people) and six workshops and dialogues were held, as well as 35 stakeholder group meetings to institutionalise the programme. The partnership raised USD 70,000 in cash and in kind, of which only 17 per cent came from institutional sources (e.g. Cap-Net). The rest came from individual and corporate entities in Karachi, and city and town governments. GWP provided support to one Town of Karachi for its set of dialogues at the start of 2009.