Transparency and Digitalization in Water Services: Reality or Still a Dream?

Abstract

The provision of public services, mostly by local governments, has been widely analyzed in the scientific literature. The relevance of these services has generated an incipient demand for information on the part of citizens, which makes it necessary for the bodies responsible for their provision to present adequate levels of transparency. In this context, digitalization is a crucial tool for providing information to citizens and, therefore, contributing to improving the levels of transparency of those organizations that provide public services. Among these, the drinking water supply service stands out, which is crucial for well-being and sustainable progress, and whose analysis is of vital importance, especially in countries such as Spain affected by factors such as climate change and urbanization. In this way, the aim of this paper is to analyze the degree of transparency of the companies providing water supply services in Spain, as well as their degree of digitalization. To this end, a relationship will be established between the Transparency Index of Public Enterprises (INDEP) and the Strategic Project for Economic Recovery and Transformation (PERTE), which measure the degree of transparency and digitalization, respectively. This relationship will be established for a sample of 59 companies responsible for water supply. The main results derived from this study show a wide margin for improvement on the part of the companies analyzed, both in terms of transparency and digitalization, as the vast majority of these companies show a medium–low degree of compliance in both aspects.