The first meeting of water supply and sanitation Eastern and Southern Africa regional regulators took place in February of 2007 in Lusaka, Zambia. In attendance were representatives from EWURA of Tanzania, WASREB of Kenya, RURA of Rwanda and CRA of Mozambique. The meeting was hosted by NWASCO of Zambia with support from the water sector reform programme of the German Technical Cooperation at the time,
With the concept of formalising regional cooperation not yet born, the first meeting was simply dubbed as a ‘Regulatory Exchange’ meeting. Regulators mainly shared experiences on water supply and sanitation sector reforms in their various countries. Culminating from this gathering, the regulators resolved to formalise cooperation among themselves by forming an Association. It was from here that the Eastern and Southern Africa Water and Sanitation Regulators Association was conceived.