Integrating indicators for performance assessment of small water utilities using ordered weighted averaging (OWA) operators

The main objective of this study is to develop a methodology that integrates indicators for performance assessment of small drinking water utilities. The investigation entails 10 water utilities in the Province of Québec (Canada) that use surface water or groundwater under the direct influence of runoff, and apply chlorination as the only treatment before distribution. All 10 water utilities were sampled five times during different months and a total of 50 data sets were collected, which were divided into two groups – training and validation data sets. The assessment of each water utility was done on an arbitrary normalized scale of being ‘problematic’ over a scale of [0, 1], where zero mean fully non-problematic and vice versa. The performance indicators consist of source water, treatment, infrastructure, operational, and maintenance characteristics of utilities that are aggregated using ordered weighted averaging (OWA) operators. The major thrust behind selecting the OWA operator for aggregation of multi-criteria is its capability to encompass a range of operators bounded between minimum and maximum. The small utility performance indicators developed suggest that it is feasible to combine information operational, infrastructure, and maintenance characteristics to establish utility performance. The findings of this study is useful to government bodies in terms of achieving a better understanding and assessment of small utilities’ specific infrastructure needs and subsequent allocation of appropriate resources.