Water

Central Asia and South Caucasus Water Utilities Association
Continuous Improvement and Benchmarking Program

CASCWUA and its member water utilities are taking progressive action to tackle the widespread problems of inadequate drinking water and sanitation for millions of poor people in their region. CASCWUA’s Continuous Improvement and Benchmarking (CIB) Program is a necessary step towards realizing the organization’s vision of improving the delivery of water supply and sanitation services by its members.

MORE ABOUT CASCWUA • Main page • About CASCWUA • CASCWUA Program of Activities • Continuous Improvement and Benchmarking • CASCWUA in Motion • Members' Corner

Continuous Improvement and Benchmarking (CIB) combines two powerful techniques to achieve change—continuous improvement and benchmarking.

Benchmarking allows organizations to measure and compare their service delivery against similar organizations. Continuous improvement, on the other hand, allows them to systematically improve their services in terms of access, timeliness, quality, cost, community satisfaction and affordability.

In the water sector, CIB can help enable water utilities to improve their delivering of water supply and sanitation services. Through its Water Operators Partnership (WOP) Program, ADB provides CIB support to water utility alliances in the region such as the South East Asian Water Utilities Network (SEAWUN), the South Asian Water Utilities Network (SAWUN), and CASCWUA.

CASCWUA embarked on its CIB program to enable the water utilities to gauge their current performance levels, identify the interventions needed to improve those levels, and undertake small but steady steps towards making the necessary changes. A CIB workshop was held at Tashkent, Uzbekistan on 22-28 March 2008 to equip participating utilities with benchmarking techniques to improve service delivery, operations, and financial performance. In this first workshop, participants were expected to immediately implement a continuous improvement program on nonrevenue water (NRW).

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The 4-day CASCWUA CIB workshop provided an opportunity for participating utilities to share their experiences in reducing NRW and its accompanying issues. Eleven utilities coming from a range of contexts, sizes, and capacity participated in the workshop and were introduced to CIB tools and techniques. They have agreed to:

• Measure NRW at year-end 2006 and 2007 to provide a baseline against which the utility’s overall improvements will be measured and evaluated in the coming years.
• Initially apply CIB tools to two services: “detection and prosecution” and “tariff policy and price setting.” Depending upon the outcome, CIB tools may also be applied to these services: meter maintenance and distribution maintenance.
• Train CIB teams in applying the CIB tools to the first two services. The teams are to be briefed on the CIB program and the tools.
• Follow a detailed time table of tasks and output deadlines.
• Estimate NRW in December 2008 to compare with NRW in 2006-2007.

The utilities also discussed the possibility of twinning arrangements that would combine the practical CIB applications and financial viability and sustainability through their own tariffs.

• CASCWUA CIB Program Timetable [English | Russian] [PDF]
• Event: CASCWUA Continuous Improvement and Benchmarking Workshop (22-28 March 2008; Tashkent, Uzbekistan)

Robert Hood
CIB Lead Facilitator, ADB
E-mail: rhood@adb.org

Cherry Ann Santos
CIB Associate Facilitator, ADB
Email: casantos@adb.org