Proposal for a Performance Dashboard for the Monitoringof Water and Sewage Service Companies (WaSCs)

The water and sewage industry provides an essential service to the community, but it is characterized by natural monopoly tendencies of service suppliers. In this framework, it is very important to assist regulators with a small set of critical indicators (performance dashboard) for the evaluation and monitoring of the service provided by Water and Sewage Companies (WaSCs). The paper originates from the analysis of situation of Piemonte (Italy), where each regional and local body adopts a proprietary Performance Measurement System (PMS). In order to improve the coordination of information flow and to support the definition of common service standards, a methodology to merge existing PMSs and define a unique shared reference system is proposed. The Kaplan and Norton's Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is adopted as the reference model of this approach. BSC is widely recognized to be an exhaustive and balanced framework in describing the performances of an organization and ensures that all the operational aspects of WaSCs are adequately monitored. The output of the proposed procedure is a general performance dashboard for the monitoring of WaSCs. The dashboard is shown and some remarks about indicators properties are developed. In particular, this analysis highlights some common pitfalls originated by a ‘rushed' aggregation of several performance indicators. Description is supported by several example

Distributive effects of increasing block tariffs. the case of a mid-size city in France

International audienceConsumer NGOs, local elected representatives and the media in France have recently favoured the idea of a water tariff that would be both incentive to conserve and social. Based on the evolution of the potable water share of the tariff in one of the first cities which adopted such a tariff, we calculated the distributive effect of successive changes on 9 types of housing units: single family, and condominiums of 10 and 100 apartments, where households would consume 75, 100, and 120 m3/yr. After some evolutions, the results show that all households benefit from a slight water bill reduction, and the bill is identical for the 3 housing types for the same consumption. This slight reduction leads to hypothesize that the new tariff might not be justified. A detailed analysis raises several critical observations going against a simplistic vision of progressive tariffs. But the tariff also results in large increases for large consumers, some of whom consider exiting the service and drilling their own well… This type of analysis should be done before any tariff change, given the complexity of factors involved in water bills

For a history of the water and sanitation services in Europe and North America

International audienceno abstrac

Public water supply in Great Britain and Germany: Common origin, different trajectories

International audienceToday, water and sanitation services are organised very differently in Britain and Germany, with privatization at regional level in Britain, and municipal companies in charge of several public services in Germany. But cities in both countries shared the same initial experience, due to the prominent role of British engineers in the initial conception of sealed piped water supply systems and water treatment.In Britain, water services were developed earlier than on the continent, by private companies which pumped the water close to cities with the newly invented steam engine. As soon as the end of the XVIIth century, Parliament made some companies statutory, which protected them from competition. But in the second half of the XIXth century, many of these companies were bought by local authorities or replaced by direct public management entities. Both the government and business communities supported this development for hygienic and welfare reasons. After the 1929 financial crisis, the British government initiated a reorganisation of public services at regional level, which resulted in a consolidation at river basin level of water resources and service management. Fifteen years later, full privatisation of water and wastewater services was accompanied by increased centralisation in the planning of resources and regulation of users.In Germany, Berlin was a notable exception, since the Emperor overrode the opposition of the local council and imposed a water service run by a private company listed on the London stock exchange. All other cities directly chose public management, together with a preference for groundwater or Uferfiltrazion. But pragmatism led to network services becoming autonomous from general budgets, and to the creation of mixed economy companies under private law but with 100% public capital, grouping together water, gas, electricity, district heating and public transport. These municipal companies have generally resisted movements towards centralisation and privatisation, and the model was imposed in the new eastern Länder after re-unification.In the end, we can contrast the histories of Britain where the public versus private debate ended up in centralisation, and Germany where the principle of subsidiarity prevailed, and we provide some explanations at the end of the article