Title: A scorecard for measuring the water supply utility performance: the case of large Indian metropolises

Authors: Mukul Kulshrestha

Addresses: Environmental Engineering Division, Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology, MANIT-Bhopal 462007, India

Abstract: This paper reviews the various international benchmarking efforts undertaken in the field of water supply and outlines a generic framework for the evaluation of performances of water supply utilities. The proposed scorecard identifies a few key indicators and uses certain clusters to group the indicators appropriately. The methodology involves assigning weights to indicators in conjunction with their scores on a devised scale, and evaluates cluster and performance scores by employing a spreadsheet. This methodology has been illustrated for the five largest water supply utilities in Indian metropolises, whose operations were found to be sub-optimal underscoring the need of reforms in order to ensure that the water supply services demonstrate sustainable operational performances.

Keywords: benchmarking; generic framework; performance indicators; performance score; performance scorecard; water supply utilities; performance measurement; India; spreadsheets.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMDM.2006.010247

International Journal of Management and Decision Making, 2006 Vol.7 No.4, pp.418 - 437

Published online: 11 Jul 2006 *

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