GLOBAL: Improving Water Utility Efficiency Through Technological Innovation

Many water utilities all over the world – particularly in developing countries – are invariably in a difficult financial situation which hinders private participation and financing. On the one hand they are a monopoly having a growing and largely unsatisfied demand for its product which should give a positive return; on the other the quality of service is often poor, the supply is invariably interrupted for a number of hours per day, not all the water consumed by the customers generates revenue and they are over-staffed – all of which requires investment to resolve. Therefore, while the business potential is clearly enormous, utilities lack the financial strength to attract the necessary investment to realize it.
Many of the problems stem from technical, commercial and organizational inefficiencies which the introduction of innovative technology can resolve. The potential efficiency-yielding interventions range from lowering leakage and replacing customer meters to reducing staff costs and optimizing the organizational structure. These are all real causes of inefficiencies, but their viability is a consequence of their relative costs and benefits which are directly dependent on the characteristic of each individual utility. So, the question is: what are the priority interventions – the low hanging fruit? The objective of the proposal is to resolve this dilemma by developing a Decision Support System which will identify the priority interventions, the investment costs and the economic benefits for any water utility. It is therefore relevant to individual utilities, funding agencies, Regulators and private financing entities.