EU - France - Comparative study of the quality of drinking water supply utilities in 13 major cities and capitals of Europe

The aim of the present study was to compare the  performances of the Lille water and sanitation utilities with those of 12 European capitals and major cities. The management of water supply utilities of these European cities is analysed by means of a comparison of performance indicators.

To ensure homogeneity of the data and facilitate the gathering of information, the selected indicators are those used in the field of water and sanitation utilities as defined by the technical reference of the SPDE and DUMONT 2005 report, which are as follows:
•    Indicators on state on the production infrastructures and water service (works, network, volume distributed and invoiced, etc) and classic economic indicators generally derived from activity audits and financial reports (turnover, costs of operation, investments, depreciation, taxes, net income, etc.).
•    Performance Indicators of services, regarding the quality of the service (continuity, compliance with standards, numbers of complaints from users per annum and by line connection/service pipe, etc.), as well as the sustainability of the service (efficiency, renewal of the network), economic management (price, total number of employees, etc.), and the social environment (solidarity funds for families in difficulties, protection of the resource upstream, commitment/employment of personnel).

At the same time, eight good practices of water service management are identified to assess to what extent the service operators base their activity on robust internal operating modes that limit the risks of mismanagement.