Data Sources

The database includes original data from the Women in Water Utilities: Breaking Barriers report and new data collected among World Bank client water institutions using paper based HR- survey and digitized HR-survey adopted in 2026.

Water or Wastewater/Sanitation Service Providers - WSS

WSS include institutions that provide water or wastewater/sanitation services such as public utilities, privately owned water operators and local government/ municipal service providers. Institutions must have paid employees.

Multiple dimensions can go into the definition of a utility – whether they offer only water or wastewater/sanitation services or both; volume of water produced; population in the service area; number of customers connected to water supply; length of water network; number of towns served with water; and density of water system (population served/length of water system).¹

Water Resource Management institution - WRM

WRMs include institutions that provide services such as irrigation agencies, river basin organizations, dam safety organizations and other water regulatory authorities. Institutions must have paid employees and as such, community-level water user associations, farmers’ organizations, or other types of community-based organizations and committees are not included under the WRM institutions in the Equal Aqua database. In March 2024, several 'irrigation and land reclamation' institutions were added as they are 'state agencies providing irrigation services to farmers under the government and deliver fee-based services'.

Methodology

Database Overview

The public database contains data from 304 institutions, including WSS and WRM utilities (public and private institutions).

The dashboard publishes regional averages, excluding national averages according to the criteria matching scorecard standards: 1) all public utilities regardless of staff size; 2) private service providers with 10+ staff (based on ILO's informal organization definition)..

Small Private Water Operators (PWOs), which are usually family-owned or privately owned, are excluded from the database because they are considered informal firms by ILO standards if they have fewer than 10 employees. However, what counts as 'informal' can change depending on factors like whether the business is registered for taxes, how much they produce, who they serve, and their number of employees. This database uses only workforce with more than 10 employees.

Definitions

Water or Wastewater/Sanitation Service Providers - WSS

WSS include institutions that provide water or wastewater/sanitation services such as public utilities, privately owned water operators and local government/ municipal service providers. Institutions must have paid employees. A water institution can be defined as an “utility”, whether it provides only water services, only wastewater or sanitation services, or both. Other factors include the amount of water produced, the population served, the number of customers connected to the water supply, the length of the water network, the number of towns supplied with water, and the density of the water system (population served per unit length of the network).

Water Resource Management institution - WRM

WRMs include such as irrigation agencies, river basin organizations, dam safety organizations and other water regulatory authorities. Institutions must have paid employees and as such, community-level water user associations, farmers’ organizations, or other types of community-based organizations and committees are not included under the WRM institutions in the Equal Aqua database. In March 2024, several “irrigation and land reclamation” institutions were added as they are considered as state agencies providing irrigation services to farmers under the government delivering fee-based services'.

Calculation Methodologies

Workforce Composition: Workforce composition (women vs. men) is calculated as the number of women in each category ÷ total in the same category. Workforce categories include total employees, licensed engineers, managers at all hierarchical levels, board members, and Managing Directors/CEOs.

Employment Dynamics: Time-based metrics examine 12-month periods. Recent recruit percentages calculate female new hires divided by total new hires. Promotion and exit rate metrics follow identical methodology using the same temporal framework.

Training and Development: Institutional-level calculations measure the number of institutions with programs ÷ total responding institutions. Programs include technical training (formal skill development), leadership training (management development), and structured mentorship programs.

Infrastructure Support: Same institutional-level approach measuring methodology applies to gender-separated toilet facilities, childcare support (either on-site or subsidized), and private lactation rooms.

Policy Framework: Institutional assessments covering formal gender strategies/targets/quotas, flexible working arrangements (remote work, flexible hours), and written sexual harassment prevention policies.

Data Quality Considerations

When institutions do not respond to HR questions about specific indicators, that excludes non-responding institutions from specific metric denominators. Regional averages represent simple averages of institutional percentages within regions. Global averages weigh all institutions equally regardless of the size. Geographic filters recalculate percentages based on filtered subsets. Notation n = 0 indicates no regional institutions provided data for specific questions, affecting regional comparison reliability.