Water Asset Management International 2.3 (2006) 16-22

Strategic management of water in urban areas. The Canadian national water and wastewater benchmarking initiative: using process to drive improvement

David Main, Leslie Ng and Andy North

Earth Tech
USA

Earth Tech has been successfully benchmarking Canadian municipal water, wastewater and stormwater utility operations since 1997. While the fundamental purpose of this project was metric benchmarking to make performance comparisons that would guide continuous improvement, the work is now acting as a dynamic platform for considering, examining and implementing a broad range of utility best practices that have resulted in superior performance where they have been put in place.

The keys to success, however, were based more on a process that emphasises communication, teamwork and collaboration rather than the trend to push computerised data management systems to their fullest potential, and most importantly in recognising the importance of hard work. With these success factors now well understood and documented, it is feasible to benchmark almost any public infrastructure amongst agencies that are willing, regardless of their level of technological development.

By sharing this methodology, the performance measure descriptions and detailed definitions, it is also feasible to make international comparisons in a simple and cost effective manner, thus opening the door to the broad exchange of international best practices.

Full article (PDF Format)