الگوبرداری تاسیسات آب آمریکای مرکزی

This study provides a comprehensive efficiency analysis of water service providers in six countries in the Central American region. Pressures for sector reform have stimulated interest in identifying and understanding the factors that can contribute to network expansion, improved service quality, and cost containment. The aim is to provide policy-makers and investment funds institutions with quantitative evidence on the effectiveness of the regional water sectors and utilities under different perspectives. In addition to key sector performance indicators, the analysis considers several benchmarking methodologies to assess technical and cost efficiency.

A recent Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) study reports that investments of US $40 billion for water assets are needed to meet the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals.2 Public and private sector funding could play a role in expanding or improving urban water systems through either equity investments or the purchase of municipal bonds. However, external financial flows are unlikely to increase significantly absent major improvements and incentives in measuring system performance. Developments over the past decade in quantitative techniques and pressures for sector reform have stimulated interest in identifying and understanding the factors that can contribute to water and sanitation systems network expansion, improved service quality, and cost containment in the sector3 (related research examines how benchmarking might facilitate conflict resolution in Central America; Berg, 2008). Policy-makers in Latin America, Asia, and Africa have begun to collect data that can serve as the basis for performance comparisons that help decision-makers identify weak and strong performers. Utility managers, water associations, regulators, and other groups have begun to undertake statistical analyses of water systems over time, across geographic regions, and across countries. The purpose of this study is to analyze the relative performance of water utilities in the Central American region to identify best performers and areas of weakness in the sector. The results can help decision-makers better direct investment funds into projects that will further develop the water sector in this region. A substantial body of technical literature exists regarding how to measure performance. Coelli et al. (2003) present a survey of different methodologies to measure performance. The methodologies considered in this study are performance indicators, total factor productivity indexes, and frontiers. A limitation associated with studies of Central America is the scarcity of data related to the water sector. The first steps of the study involved examining existing data and defining a set of variables to be collected. A main contribution of this study is the assembly of a current database for the water sector in Central America. During the data collection process, some factors were found to be limiting and others were critical for the success of the process. The subsequent steps of the study relate to performance measurement. With key input, output, and quality information, basic performance comparisons can be made. A set of performance indicators commonly used among practitioners in the water sector was calculated to provide a very simple picture of the sector's performance characteristics in the region. Some of these performance indicators were compared to those presented by the benchmarking task force of Association of Water and Sanitation Regulatory Entities of the Americas (ADERASA)4 in its most recent annual report.5 The availability of data from 2002 to 2005 allowed assessing performance in the region through the calculation of total factor productivity indexes. Finally, to provide a more comprehensive picture of the efficiencies associated with production practices in the region, a production frontier using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and a stochastic cost frontier were included in the analysis. Differences on some of the values obtained from this variety of performance measures are based on the different assumptions underlying each methodology. A best performer was found consistently through the performance methodologies calculation. The study is organized as follows. In Section 2, the data collection process is described. Section 3 provides an analysis of core performance indicators. Section 4 utilizes total productivity indexes to examine productivity. Sections 5 and 6 contain a non-parametric and parametric frontier analysis. Section 7 concludes.

A major contribution from this study is the creation of a unique database and a comprehensive data collection process. The data collected is very representative from a sector-wide perspective, considering total water service coverage in the region. The quality of the data set is considered good in the sense that it came from and was reviewed and certified by data owners. A major conclusion from this analysis points towards additional efforts for improving data collection procedures in the region. Besides the scarce presence of information technology limiting record keeping within these utilities, difficulties also may be due to the fragmented service provision in some countries. A higher level of coordination is needed if data are to be collected and trends analyzed. Such an initiative may require an analysis of stakeholders' responsibilities regarding monitoring and storage of data. For instance, coordination is needed among stakeholders regarding what data should be collected and how. In the process of identifying segments of the industry with no data, policy-makers, regulators, and managerial staff have been encouraged to expand efforts to seek disaggregated data. Such data are necessary for further quantitative analysis, providing more complete information regarding sector performance. For regulatory agencies, related government institutions, and funding agencies, this study may contain additional information for their strategic planning and decision-making processes. This study should be viewed as a first step in the analysis of water utilities in Central America. As additional years become available and more utilities provide information, analysts will be able to conduct much more thorough analyses of sector performance. The results presented here are expected to serve as a catalyst for more comprehensive data collection/verification initiatives in the region and for additional quantitative studies.