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Comprehensive Methodology for Overall Performance Assessment of Water Utilities

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  • Amir Nafi
  • Jacques Tcheng
  • Patrick Beau

Abstract

Water utilities render a public service that highly influences sensitive domains such as human health, society, economy, environment and policy. In the context of diversification of water uses, scarcity of water resources, pollution of surface and underground resources, energy optimisation and public funding cuts, the improvement of water utility performance represents a real challenge. A water utility is an organisation of human and material resources for the purpose of taking advantage of water resources to deliver drinking water to the population, implying a trade-off between technical, economical, financial and organisational aspects. A partial performance is commonly measured by considering each aspect separately, so a real challenge consists in developing a methodology that includes all the aspects of water utility performance using multiple indicators. The current paper is based on an original conceptual vision of the water utility as an organisation focused on the customer and built on four fundamental pillars: human resources, financial resources, assets and environment. The proposed approach uses an elicitation procedure involving the decision maker to co-build comprehensive core indicators belonging to each pillar and then calibrates them according to the context of the water utility, decision maker preferences and ad-hoc performance thresholds. In the end, performance is assessed both at the individual and overall scale. A specific metric is defined for overall performance calculation that should be monitored over a specified time period to check its trend and redefine implemented policy in the case of a downgraded situation. An illustration of the methodology is given for the water utility of Grenoble (France). Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Amir Nafi & Jacques Tcheng & Patrick Beau, 2015. "Comprehensive Methodology for Overall Performance Assessment of Water Utilities," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 29(15), pages 5429-5450, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:waterr:v:29:y:2015:i:15:p:5429-5450
    DOI: 10.1007/s11269-015-1127-3
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Pinto, F.S. & Costa, A.S. & Figueira, J.R. & Marques, R.C., 2017. "The quality of service: An overall performance assessment for water utilities," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 115-125.
    2. Jordi Honey-Rosés & Claudio Pareja, 2019. "Metrics and Methods for Comparing Water Utility Rate Structures," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 5(02), pages 1-31, April.
    3. Francisco Silva Pinto & Rui Cunha Marques, 2016. "Tariff Suitability Framework for Water Supply Services," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 30(6), pages 2037-2053, April.
    4. María Molinos-Senante & Alexandros Maziotis & Ramon Sala-Garrido, 2017. "Assessment of the Total Factor Productivity Change in the English and Welsh Water Industry: a Färe-Primont Productivity Index Approach," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 31(8), pages 2389-2405, June.
    5. Pinto, Francisco Silva & Simões, Pedro & Marques, Rui Cunha, 2017. "Raising the bar: The role of governance in performance assessments," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 38-47.
    6. Ahmed M. A. Sattar & B. Gharabaghi & Edward A. McBean, 2016. "Prediction of Timing of Watermain Failure Using Gene Expression Models," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 30(5), pages 1635-1651, March.
    7. Ahmed Sattar & B. Gharabaghi & Edward McBean, 2016. "Prediction of Timing of Watermain Failure Using Gene Expression Models," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 30(5), pages 1635-1651, March.
    8. Julie C. Padowski & Lorenzo Carrera & James W. Jawitz, 2016. "Overcoming Urban Water Insecurity with Infrastructure and Institutions," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 30(13), pages 4913-4926, October.
    9. Goh, Kim Huat & See, Kok Fong, 2021. "Measuring the productivity growth of Malaysia's water sector: Implications for regulatory reform," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).

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