The current status of small-scale desalination (produced water capacity 100 m³/day or less) is reviewed to provide an overview of the market segment. The use of energy-recovery devices in this market segment is also reviewed. We find that the Middle East accounts for the largest market share worldwide at present, and reverse osmosis is overwhelmingly dominant among the desalination technologies adopted. Implementation of energy-recovery devices at small scale is rare, which leads to relatively high energy consumption for small-scale seawater reverse osmosis desalination systems.

This work analyzes the main outcomes and success factors of the water operators’ partnership (WOP) between the Dutch water operators’ organization, VEI (formerly Vitens Evides International), and the Vietnamese water utility, Da Nang Water Supply Joint Stock Company (Dawaco), which took place from 2007 to 2010. The partnership is considered within broader international and regional funding programmes, including parallel national and regional WOPs. The article presents WOPs as key processes in larger operations of water infrastructure development and considers WOPs as relevant strategies that contribute to the improvement of urban water services at a global scale.

Using the lens of a transnational urban political ecology of water infrastructures in Vietnam, this article contributes to the understanding of the intersections between urbanization patterns, socioecological problems, financial schemes, and the power relations embedded in Hanoi’s urban water supply through politics of scale that aim to ensure safe drinking water. With the analysis of global water policies and their implications in the Southeast-Asian context, the objectives of this work are to (a) reveal the scalar nature of Hanoi’s water infrastructures by situating water management processes in a broader context of developmental issues, and (b) review lessons and prospects of past and future global targets of access to safe drinking water. The evidence of multilevel water governance processes and cross-sectoral challenges of safe water provision emphasizes the need for global networks of cooperation to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 6 and contribute to other sectors aiming to “transform our world.”