When the Government of India formally launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) in 2005,the Asian Development Bank (ADB) committed to support it with a US$2 million technical assistance grant. The grant aims to increase up to US$11 billion the central government’s investments on basic urban infrastructure and services in 63 cities over the next 7 years. The infrastructure and service interventions will focus on, among other things, water supply, waste management, public transportation, and more.
ADB and the Government of India have agreed that more knowledge is needed on selected JNNURM cities that have the most potential for ADB involvement. Such knowledge would be useful in identifying projects in support of the JNNURM program. One initiative identified is a benchmarking program for 30 selected water utilities in India.
This benchmarking program will be supervised by the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) and supported by ADB. Data collected from the project will feed into the JNNURM and enable utilities to better access MoUD assistance.
The benchmarking program results will be published as a water utilities data book similar to the Second Water Utilities Databook: Asian and Pacific Region (October 1997) and the Data Book of Southeast Asian Water Utilities (June 2005). The data book will contain profiles of each water utility, comparison of performance among the utilities, and a profile of the sector.
To set the benchmarking program for India’s water utilities in motion, an inception workshop was held in Chennai, with 55 participants, speakers, and observers attending.
After the workshop, MoUD expressed its strong commitment to the Project. MoUD also requested the utilities to cooperate with ADB to expedite the project's implementation. A project team has finalized the questionnaire which was subsequently sent to the utilities through MoUD.
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This workshop
- Provided participants with an understanding of benchmarking as a tool for performance improvement
- Selected the most appropriate performance indicators to measure performance of water utilities
- Planned the implementation of the benchmarking and water utilities data book project
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The workshop was conducted through a combination of lectures, presentations, case reports, discussions, exercises, and video presentation on performance improvements.
The workshop topics included
- Urban development and the JNNURM
- Overview of benchmarking and performance measures
- Selection of performance measures
- Performance improvement and process benchmarking
- Process mapping
- Water utility performance of 4 Indian Urban local bodies (ULBs)
- The benchmarking and data book project
- Data collection and the water utility questionnaire
- Data analysis and presentation of results
- Reports and the water utilities data book
- Project schedule and implementation
A 20-minute video presentation highlighted how 2006 Ramon Magsaysay awardee Ek Sonn Chan transformed Cambodia’s Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority’s decrepit distribution system with 70% losses to become one of Asia’s most effective water utilities.
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The workshop was conducted and facilitated by ADB with assistance from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.
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Twenty-eight (28) water utility representatives from the selected JNNURM cities coming from either the technical operations or financial unit with knowledge of performance measures attended the workshop. They were joined by representatives from MoUD and ADB.
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The workshop was held at Hall 3, IC&SR Building, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Chennai, India.
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