Significant adjustments are needed in the Water Management of Large Cities.
After 2014, the area of responsibility of metropolitan municipalities was extended to the provincial borders and included all district municipalities in the province after the closure of municipalities. The responsibilities of metropolitan water and sewerage administrations (SU Kİ), whose areas of responsibility have expanded considerably since 2014, have come under increasing pressure due to structural and economic problems.
Public Service in Water may be at risk. Major adjustments needed in Water Management of Big Cities
Water and Sewerage Administrations, which serve more than 75% of the population of our country, have a very important place in the management of water services in 30 metropolitan cities as the executing organizations of a wide range of services from lost water to subscriber services, from drinking water treatment to wastewater recycling, from rainwater collection and removal to stream bed improvement.
After 2014, the area of responsibility of metropolitan municipalities was extended to the provincial borders and included all district municipalities in the province after the closure of municipalities. The responsibilities of metropolitan water and sewerage administrations (SU Kİ), whose areas of responsibility have expanded considerably since 2014, have come under increasing pressure due to structural and economic problems.
Administrations with many different types of services are obliged to continuously and systematically measure and monitor how effectively and efficiently they perform their services. This study was conducted for the third time by SUEN and the following results were obtained.
Current Situation Assessment in SU-EN's Reports
The report of the 3rd phase of the "Benchmarking among Water and Sewerage Administrations" study, which was initiated by the Water Institute of Turkey (SU-EN) in 2017 to reveal the service and performance levels of Water and Sewerage Administrations in a comparative manner, was published in June 2022.
The data shared by 29 water and sewerage administrations of our country were analyzed by SU-EN through the benchmarking study. The following striking results are included in the Phase 3 evaluation report published in June 2022.
Personnel training is not given the necessary importance
When the data of 28 SUKIs were analyzed for "in-service training time per staff", which is of high importance for human resources capacity development, it was found that the average in-service training time was 0.16 hours/staff/year. The fact that only 6 out of 28 administrations are above the average value shows that many administrations do not attach the necessary importance to personnel training.
Three quarters of metropolitan cities do not have a Water Master Plan
According to the statements of 28 administrations that provided information for the indicator "existence of a master plan that is valid and implemented by the administration" among the corporate strategic management indicators, 21 administrations do not have a master plan. It should be one of the prioritized issues for SUKIs to base their services on a master plan prepared with at least a 30-year perspective and program instead of short-term solutions.
It is important that the relevant administrations in all provinces, especially the metropolitan SUKIs, have well-prepared master plans to ensure efficient and economical provision of drinking water, wastewater and storm water services. According to the statements of 28 administrations that provided information for the indicator "existence of a valid and implemented master plan" among the corporate strategic management indicators, 75% of the administrations do not have a valid and implemented master plan.
Only 9 of the SUKIs have a stand-alone R&D Unit
In order to expand R&D activities in the sector, which has a wide research area on drinking water and wastewater, it is very important for the SUKIs with sufficient financial and technical means to have a separate R&D unit within their organization.
In the study conducted by SU-EN, when the "presence of an R&D unit in the administration" was questioned, only 9 out of 29 administrations were found to have a separate R&D unit.
The energy and financial performance efficiency of SUKIs is low.
It is observed that administrations perform relatively poorly, especially in the areas of energy efficiency and financial performance. There is a need to carry out studies on energy efficiency in administrations and administrations should take urgent measures on renewable energy and make renewable energy resources a component of their operational activities.
Administrations should take necessary measures to increase their equity, income-expenditure and collection ratios, which are among the most important components of economic and financial performance.
Average water loss rate is 40
Although drinking water services have a higher average value than other areas, the water loss rate (40%), one of the most important component indicators of this area, is still high. As stipulated in the Regulation on Control of Water Losses in Drinking Water Supply and Distribution Systems, this rate needs to be urgently reduced to below 25%.
3 SUKI draws entirely from groundwater
When the data shared by SUKI is analyzed, it is seen that the average rates of surface and groundwater sources are 59% and 41% respectively. 3 administrations reported using entirely surface water sources and 3 administrations reported using entirely groundwater sources.
The performance and sustainability of SUKIs is critical
Within the scope of the study, the competence and effectiveness of administrations are questioned in 7 important sub-categories that form the basis of their institutional success and sustainability.
The thematic categories of institutional, economic and financial, customer services, energy efficiency, drinking water services, wastewater services and environment are very important in terms of evaluating the performance of different fields of activity separately. The administrations analyzed in different categories are also evaluated according to the total score within the holistic index.
The average U. Apgar Index score for the 28 evaluated administrations across Turkey was 8.32 for 2020, which corresponds to the critical level on the index scale.
No improvement in the Performance of SUKIs
When this value is compared to the average value of 8.44 in the most recent benchmarking study calculated with 2017 data, it is seen that there is no progress in terms of overall performance in the sector.
The results of the Performance Areas Index, developed within the scope of this study to show the performance status of the PSPs in 7 performance categories, show that the three lowest performing areas are energy efficiency, economic-financial and wastewater services.
Significant regulation of SUKIs is needed
The comparative evaluation of the performance of the SUKIs in Turkey is of great importance since they provide public services to 80% of the country's population in water and wastewater and are concessionary public monopolies.
The comparative evaluation studies conducted 3 times by SU-EN have revealed the need for significant administrative and technical adjustments in the institutions.
In order to develop fast and cost-effective solutions to common problems, to carry out training/certification activities, to carry out applied joint R&D studies, to support information and experience sharing, it would be of great benefit to reorganize the institutional structures of the SUKIs in our country, taking into consideration the draft Water Law that is being prepared for submission to the Turkish Grand National Assembly.
Reference:
Comparative Performance Evaluation among Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Administrations (Phase 3) Year of Publication: June 2022 ISBN: 978-625-8451-43-6. SU-EN Istanbul
