Performance evaluation of water supply services in developing country: A case study of Ahmedabad city

Abstract

Unplanned and rapid growth of urban areas of developing countries poses major threat to service providers. Water supply management becomes critical aspect in the above scenario. The onus of managing its supply and distribution rests on the local government of the concerned area. Ahmedabad being world’s third largest and India’s fastest growing city has been selected for analysis of water supply services. Performance evaluation of water supply services for Ahmedabad city was carried out using nine performance indicators suggested by Ministry of Urban Development (MOUD), Government of India. The nine performance indicators as suggested by MOUD are: coverage of water supply connection, per capita supply of water, extent of metering of water connections, extent of non revenue water, continuity of water supply, quality of water supplied, efficiency in redressal of customer complaints, cost recovery of water supply services and efficiency in collection of water supplied related charges. Required data was collected from Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation. Analysis of the data suggests that among all the indicators of supply of water, cost recovery in water supply services, efficiency in redressal of customer complaints, quality of water supplied and efficiency in collection of water supply related charges showed good performance. However, metering of connection, continuity of water supply and non revenue water needs planned efforts to bring them up to the benchmark.