Performance indicators and perception surveys: a combined assessment of water utilities

摘要: Mexican water utilities are lagging behind globally in terms of physical efficiency, coverage, reliability, water quality, and sustainability. Performance benchmarking is a tool used worldwide to make service providers more accountable, and to assess progress while improving performance. In performance benchmarking water utilities are compared amongst each other to identify opportunities for improvement and to accomplish change. This paper makes a first attempt to build a holistic benchmarking process that allows reliable comparisons among performances of Mexican water utilities. The study uses information available from two of the three areas described in the original benchmarking method:(1) performance indicators reported by the water utilities and (2) user perception on water services, which were obtained through a national survey. By using this method, fifty three Mexican water utilities were classified as low, medium, and high performers. Those utilities in which the level of service based on performance indicators reported by water utilities were in agreement with the level of service determined from user perception were selected for preliminary analyses. These analyses evaluated possible causes of differences in overall performance levels between water utilities including (1) city size and (2) a combination of the water tariff and commercial efficiency.