Privatising Water Utilities and User Perception of Tap Water Quality: Evidence from Spanish Urban Water Services

2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 315-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel A. García-Rubio ◽  
Cecilia Tortajada ◽  
Francisco González-Gómez
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Tap Water ◽  
Water Utilities ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Water Services ◽  
User Perception ◽  
Urban Water Services ◽  
Tap Water Quality ◽  
Quality Evidence

scholarly journals Innovation results of IAM planning in urban water services

2016 ◽  
Vol 74 (7) ◽  
pp. 1518-1526 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. Cardoso ◽  
A. Poças ◽  
M. S. Silva ◽  
R. Ribeiro ◽  
M. C. Almeida ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Asset Management ◽  
Civil Engineering ◽  
Water Utilities ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Water Services ◽  
Sustainable Infrastructure ◽  
Effective Implementation ◽  
Software Company ◽  
Urban Water Services ◽  
Levels Of Service

The requirement to provide urban water services continuously while infrastructures are ageing, imposes the need for increasingly sustainable infrastructure asset management (IAM). To achieve and maintain adequate levels of service, the AWARE-P IAM methodology has been applied in collaborative projects launched by the National Civil Engineering Laboratory, in partnership with IST (Technical University of Lisbon), Addition (software company) and several water utilities. The objective of these projects is to support urban water utilities in the development, implementation and maintenance of IAM plans. To guarantee the success of IAM planning, following the AWARE-P IAM methodology, utilities are required to: consider that the infrastructure has system behaviour and lifespan is indefinite and guarantee the full-alignment of IAM planning with organisation objectives. By analysing the strategic and tactical plans of participating utilities, the proposed methodology principles are discussed and supported. The main innovation results from the implementation of IAM planning are also presented and discussed, including the challenges of setting up an IAM process, together with the major benefits and drawbacks that come up when developing IAM plans. The results were demonstrated by the effective implementation of 16 strategic and 14 tactical IAM plans by the participating utilities.

scholarly journals Resilient Urban Water Services for the 21th Century Society—Stakeholder Survey in Finland

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jyrki Laitinen ◽  
Johanna Kallio ◽  
Tapio S. Katko ◽  
Jarmo J. Hukka ◽  
Petri Juuti
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Education System ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
System Capacity ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Water Services ◽  
Institutional Management ◽  
Urban Water Services ◽  
Technical Operation

Resilience has become a vital theme in the discussion concerning urban water services. Resilience in this context can be defined as both keeping up a good level of services, as well as rapid and fluent recovery from failures caused by natural disasters, unsound infrastructure or incorrect management. Although adequate water services resilience can be considered as sustainable, resilience is a wider concept than sustainability. In order to call water services resilient, all sections from policy and management to technical operation should be clear and coherent, and their operation in challenging situations also must be guaranteed. This study seeks a resilient approach to water services through a literature review, and a questionnaire to stakeholders; mainly water supply and sanitation experts. The results show that sufficient technology and good water quality are not sufficient for achieving resilient water services, but also education and institutional management are essential issues. These are accomplished by a methodical education system, capacity building, and good governance.

scholarly journals How Perceptions of Trust, Risk, Tap Water Quality, and Salience Characterize Drinking Water Choices

Hydrology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Madeline A. Grupper ◽  
Madeline E. Schreiber ◽  
Michael G. Sorice
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Anthropogenic Impacts ◽  
Tap Water ◽  
Water Utilities ◽  
Global Changes ◽  
Water Utility ◽  
The Public ◽  
Water Behavior

Provision of safe drinking water by water utilities is challenged by disturbances to water quality that have become increasingly frequent due to global changes and anthropogenic impacts. Many water utilities are turning to adaptable and flexible strategies to allow for resilient management of drinking water supplies. The success of resilience-based management depends on, and is enabled by, positive relationships with the public. To understand how relationships between managers and communities spill over to in-home drinking water behavior, we examined the role of trust, risk perceptions, salience of drinking water, and water quality evaluations in the choice of in-home drinking water sources for a population in Roanoke Virginia. Using survey data, our study characterized patterns of in-home drinking water behavior and explored related perceptions to determine if residents’ perceptions of their water and the municipal water utility could be intuited from this behavior. We characterized drinking water behavior using a hierarchical cluster analysis and highlighted the importance of studying a range of drinking water patterns. Through analyses of variance, we found that people who drink more tap water have higher trust in their water managers, evaluate water quality more favorably, have lower risk perceptions, and pay less attention to changes in their tap water. Utility managers may gauge information about aspects of their relationships with communities by examining drinking water behavior, which can be used to inform their future interactions with the public, with the goal of increasing resilience and adaptability to external water supply threats.

scholarly journals Legal Aspects of Urban Water and Sanitation Regulatory Services: An Analysis of How the Spanish Experience Positively Would Contribute to the Brazilian New Regulation

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 1023
Author(s):  
Asensio Navarro Ortega ◽  
Rafael Burlani Neves
Keyword(s):  
Service Management ◽  
Legal Aspects ◽  
Natural Monopoly ◽  
Wastewater Management ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Water Services ◽  
Public Intervention ◽  
Economic Point ◽  
General Terms ◽  
Urban Water Services

This paper focuses on the legal and institutional framework of urban water services in Spain, emphasizing water sanitation by using proposals that would positively contribute to wastewater management in Brazil. The recent Brazilian Federal Law No. 14,026/20 aims to encourage investment in water sanitation, promoting public-private collaboration formulas so that service management is viable even in economically less-favored regions. In Spain, sanitation policies are aimed at fulfilling the set of obligations and objectives imposed by European Union Directives within the environmental policies of the Union. From an economic point of view, supply and sanitation water services are classified at European legal framework as “services of general economic interest” (SGEI), not subject to harmonized regulation and open to a natural monopoly provision regime, which they admit various types of management formulas, public and private, based on the ownership and public intervention of the service, both at national and European level. We believe that the Spanish experience in this field, beyond its singularities, can serve as a useful reference for Brazilian’s urban wastewater new regulation for several reasons: (1) Because of the decentralized political scheme that both countries share and the need to articulate an adequate system of competencies in consequence; (2) Because of the international experience that Spanish companies have at the sector’s technological forefront, they are very competitive; (3) Due to the adequate functioning of the Spanish legal and organizational framework since, despite its shortcomings, as we later will comment, it has managed to develop successful financing formulas and management models that, in general terms, have allowed to ensure with reasonable efficiency, continuity, stability and sustainability in the provision of urban water services.

scholarly journals Tap Water Quality: Seasonal User Surveys in Poland

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (13) ◽  
pp. 3841
Author(s):  
Józef Ober ◽  
Janusz Karwot
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Tap Water ◽  
Quality Parameters ◽  
Subjective Perception ◽  
Quality Of Water ◽  
Profit Analysis ◽  
Tap Water Quality

Security of supply of water, which meets the quality parameters specified in applicable standards, is now the basis for the functioning of most societies. In addition to climatic, biological, chemical, and physical hazards, it is worth paying attention to consumers’ subjective perception of the quality of tap water supplied in the area of Poland. The article discusses various activities related to water resources management and analyses the results of an evaluation of selected quality parameters of tap water in Poland. A novelty on a European scale here is an examination of the evaluation of these parameters based on potential seasonal differences (spring, summer, autumn, winter). For the first time in the world literature, PROFIT analysis was used to evaluate selected parameters of tap water quality. The aim of the article was to present a model for the evaluation of the parameters of tap water supplied in different seasons of the year in Poland. Due to the complexity of the research aspects, a mixed-methods research procedure was used in which a literature review was combined with a survey and statistical analysis. For the purpose of the survey, an original survey questionnaire called “Survey of customer opinions on selected parameters of tap water supplied in Poland” was developed especially for this study. The conducted research confirmed the adopted hypothesis that the results of evaluation of selected tap water parameters vary depending on the period (spring, summer, autumn, winter) in Poland. The model developed by means of PROFIT analysis makes it possible to highlight to water suppliers the specific quality parameters in particular seasons of the year (spring, summer, autumn, winter), which may improve the quality of water supplied in Poland and thus, in the long-term perspective, increase the level of satisfaction of water recipients and confidence in drinking tap water in Poland.

scholarly journals Understanding the governance of urban water services from an institutional logics perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 68 ◽  
pp. 101159
Author(s):  
Manuel Franco-Torres ◽  
Ragnhild Kvålshaugen ◽  
Rita M. Ugarelli
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Logics ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Water Services ◽  
Urban Water Services

A time series study of anti-diarrheal drug sales and tap-water quality

1999 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 293-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pascal Beaudeau ◽  
Pierre Payment ◽  
Dominique Bourderont ◽  
Francois Mansotte ◽  
Onealy Boudhabay ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Time Series ◽  
Tap Water ◽  
Time Series Study ◽  
Drug Sales ◽  
Tap Water Quality ◽  
Series Study

scholarly journals Bill payment behaviour in urban water services: empirical data from Uganda

2004 ◽  
Vol 53 (5) ◽  
pp. 339-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam Kayaga ◽  
Richard Franceys ◽  
Kevin Sansom
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Data ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Water Services ◽  
Urban Water Services ◽  
Payment Behaviour

The ‘social choice’ of privatising urban water services: A case study of Madrid in Spain

2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 616-629 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Ruiz-Villaverde ◽  
Andrés J. Picazo-Tadeo ◽  
Francisco González-Gómez
Keyword(s):  
Social Choice ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Water Services ◽  
The Social ◽  
Urban Water Services

scholarly journals An investigation of tap water quality in Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia

2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 191-196
Author(s):  
HO Salah ◽  
IM Sujaul ◽  
Md Abdul Karim ◽  
MH Mohd Nasir ◽  
A Abdalmnam ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Tap Water ◽  
Quality Standard ◽  
Total Coliform ◽  
Total Hardness ◽  
Aspergillus Aculeatus ◽  
Purpureocillium Lilacinum ◽  
Aspergillus Sp ◽  
Tap Water Quality

Assessment of the quality of tap water at Kuantan area of Pahang, Malaysia was investigated. The parameters analyzed were total coliform, Escherichia coli, pH, total hardness, sulfate, and selected heavy metal based on drinking water quality standard Malaysia and WHO. The results showed that the fungi in the tap water in Kuantan area in different concentrations were Aspergillus sp., Rhodotorula mucilaginosa, Penicillium citrinum, Cladosporium cladosporioides, Cerrena sp., Aspergillus aculeatus, A. flavus, Cryptococcus sp., Cladosporium perangustum, Purpureocillium lilacinum and Candida catenulata. The residual free chlorine varied from 0.05 to 1.97 mg/l.

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