Financial and operational performance indicators applied to public and private water and wastewater utilities

Abstract

PurposeThe paper seeks to assess the performance of 234 public and private water and wastewater utilities from industrialized and developing countries.Design/methodology/approachA group of financial and operational indicators was calculated for the sample utilities.FindingsSome indicators calculated for the private sector, represented by US and UK water and wastewater utilities, demonstrated better values compared with public utilities, such as staff number per 1,000 connections and return on equity ratio and tariffs charged. On the other hand, the percentage of unaccounted‐for water and the debt to equity ratio evidenced no advantage in private over public utilities. Further, the performance of water and wastewater utilities of developing countries and Egypt does need improvement.Originality/valueA key problem in most of water and wastewater utilities is the absence of performance assessment tools. To this end, this research utilized indicators as a means of performance assessment of water/wastewater utilities.