Abstract

Achievement of Millennium Development Goals (MGDs) for water and sanitation requires significant investment, effective management, and participation of all stakeholders. This is especially highly challenging in low-income countries where utility inefficiencies due to limited infrastructure and absence of effective management system are still most prevalent. The problems of inadequate water and sanitation service provision in cities of developing countries are exacerbated by high growth rate in urban population. The proportion of the world’s population that lives in urban areas has increased from 43% in 1990 to 50% in 2008 (UNICEF/WHO, 2011). Asmara is the capital of the state of Eritrea and the administrative centre of the Central Region, and Asmara Water Supply Department (AWSD) is the only public utility responsible for water and sanitation services in the city and surrounding areas. Similar to most public water utilities in sub-Saharan Africa, AWSD has been facing financial and technical constraints due to an inefficient management and operation systems resulting from lack of qualified personnel, low tariffs, high non-revenue water (NRW), over staffing, poor consumer records and inefficient billing and collection practices. The problems were further exacerbated by the limited available water resources, aging infrastructure, lack of human resource development program, and lack of an effective planning and management system. This study aims in building a system of performance measurement, monitoring and analysis, and benchmarking practices to promote development of decision support tools to improve the management and operational process of the utility. The analysis of selected performance indicators showed that the water services provided by the water utility were unsatisfactory due to various factors such as, low service coverage, intermittent mode of water distribution, long-period of cut-offs, and poor management and customer care services. The results of this study emphasize the urgency of wide-ranging reforms needed by the decision makers in Asmara in order to achieve effective, efficient and sustainable water supply system.

Highlights

  • The sustainability of human development and economic growth is being threatened by the growing scarcity of water

  • Analysis of the data collected from the database of the Asmara Water Supply Department (AWSD) shows that the current service coverage in terms of the population served from the distribution system is about 76%

  • In other words, being connected does not mean the customer is guaranteed to adequate supply of water, which is true for the case of Asmara where many areas that are connected to water distribution system (WDS) yet could only get water for few hours of the day on weekly or monthly basis

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Summary

Introduction

The sustainability of human development and economic growth is being threatened by the growing scarcity of water. Clean water and adequate sanitation are essential for health and well-being, poor governance of water and sanitation systems means that many periurban and rural areas lack services, and where they are available, the quality of service is unsatisfactory (Asís, Leary, Ljung, & Butterworth, 2009). These problems are wide spread in many developing countries especially in Sub-Saharan Africa where the utilities lack efficient and transparent management system. Urban water resources should be pursued through robust management, integrated policy making, efficient resource allocation and utilization, and efficacious information collection and dissemination (Vaziri & Tolouei, 2010).

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