The “Operation & Maintenance Strategies for Hydropower – Handbook for Practitioners and Decision Makers” recently prepared by the World Bank (WB), with support for the case studies from the International Hydropower Association (IHA) outlines practical steps and recommendations to prepare ad-hoc operation and maintenance (O&M) strategies that will help extending life expectancy of assets while securing hydropower production in a cost-effective way and preventing high-cost expenditures for rehabilitating facilities that have not been maintained properly. The Handbook is anchored in 6 case-studies and targets particularly hydropower facilities in developing countries, where challenging environment together with lower human and financial capabilities can hamper sustainable O&M of assets. However, the Handbook remains relevant to the Ontario hydropower community as many of the challenges in achieving sustainable hydropower O&M stay the same. The presentation will provide an overview of the Handbook and describe the 8-Step process for developing O&M strategies and will share O&M strategies for managing risk, allocating CAPEX/OPEX, optimizing human resources and developing contractual O&M models. Additionally, international best practices in hydropower O&M and opportunities for modernizing existing facilities will be discussed to promote dialogue among practitioners and decision-makers in the room.