Assessment of wastewater asset management effectiveness in the case of rare data and low investments

Abstract

A three steps methodological approach is developed in order to assess the effectiveness of wastewater asset management under critical conditions. Rare data and poor investments are two main causes of weakness to reach an effective asset management. They put managers under severe conditions. In the first step of the proposed methodology, results of a survey conducted amongst services of the National Sanitation Office in several Algerian cities, on wastewater assets, are presented and discussed. In total, network-related information, such as pipe materials, age, hydraulic characteristics, manholes number and types, damage nature and frequency, was acquired. Depending on the data collected and their importance for urban sanitation, statistical analyses were performed. The second step treats the efficiency of maintenance activities by analysing data collected from different technical reports of offices. In the end, an explanation of the main characteristics of the Algerian wastewater asset management system is described, as well as the efforts required to achieve the ISO-55000 standard recommendations are identified. As results, two performance indicators are proposed allowing a comparative study between the wastewater networks of two Algerian cities.