The EBC Foundation is delighted to announce that registration is now open for the 20th edition of our international benchmarking exercise for drinking water and wastewater services — IB2025 (2026). This milestone year celebrates two decades of collaboration, peer learning, and shared commitment to strengthening water services across Europe and beyond.
Every year, water utilities join our European benchmarking and improvement programme to gain a clear, objective view of their performance and to identify meaningful opportunities for progress. In a world of rising expectations, increasing risks, and rapid change, our community continues to grow stronger — built on trust, transparency, and the belief that we advance further when we move forward together.
Through the benchmarking exercise, utilities gain:
Compare your drinking water and/or wastewater services with peer utilities across Europe and beyond. The assessment follows the water services value chain, covering six key performance areas in the output domain and examination of other domains.
- Access
- Water quality / wastewater treatment quality
- Reliability
- Service quality
- Sustainability
- Finance & efficiency
- Asset management
- Progress toward UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
By participating in our international workshops, discussions, and Knowledge Picnics, utilities share experiences, explore innovations, and learn from proven best practices. This network now represents over 100 million people served.
Participants receive extensive reporting, access to our online database and knowledge base, opportunities to actively network and dive deeper into topics that matter for further improvement, as well as for facing emerging challenges and risks.
The annual programme consists of:
- Orientation & training (upon request)
- Kick-off session
- Data collection & validation
- Draft individual reports
- Data quality improvement
- Annual benchmarking workshop
- Final individual reports
The IB2025 (2026) Annual Benchmarking Workshop is tentatively scheduled to take place 18–20 November 2026 in Madrid, Spain.
An optional (not part of the cycle) Knowledge Picnic on Resilience (with focus on Security and Cybersecurity) is planned for May.
Everything you need to join the 2026 benchmarking exercise is now available:
👉 Call to Register (with all programme details)
👉 Terms & Conditions
👉 Online registration form
For any questions, please contact us at administrator@waterbenchmark.org.
We look forward to welcoming your company to our unique European water community!
Sincerely,
EBC Foundation Team