Development of Performance Index for Small and Medium-Sized Drinking Water Systems

Drinking water system (DWS) is an important public infrastructure that plays a significant role in attainment of a healthy lifestyle. To ensure that a DWS is functioning efficiently, the first step is to know the existing condition of a water system. A complete understanding of DWS is only possible when its current performance is both measured and compared against the similar water systems. Performance assessment becomes much more critical specifically in small and medium-sized water systems (SMWSs) because these systems constantly grapple with various constraints, including but are not limited to insufficient fund, limited staff, inadequate infrastructure, and absence of advanced water treatment. A questionnaire was distributed to the municipalities across the Okanagan Valley to identify the key performance indicators (KPIs). Thirty-nine KPIs were identified across six performance criteria: environment, finance, infrastructure, staff, and operation and monitoring, and social and institutional. Municipal representatives rated these KPIs based on relevancy, clarity, reliability, and comparability. Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), a multicriteria decision-making method was employed to calculate the performance index. Analytical Hierarchical Process was used to calculate weights of performance criteria, whereas KPIs aggregation was based on an Ordered Weighted Average technique. In this study, performance of three small and medium-sized municipal water systems is measured. Necessary data corresponding to each criterion for all the KPIs were also collected. The results show that performance index of water system "X" was found to be the highest (62), followed by Y (33) and Z (21). Water system "X" had the highest aggregated score for operation and monitoring criterion, while "Y" and "Z" had the same score for environment criterion. The findings from the study indicated key areas that require municipal interventions to enhance drinking water system performance and ensure high quality life.