Economic and technical efficiency of water suppliers: the impact of leakages.

• María Molinos Senante ^[1] ; Francesc Hernández Sancho ^[1] ; Ramón Sala Garrido ^[1]
  1. [1] Universitat de València

     Universitat de València

     Valencia, España

     
• Localización: Anales de ASEPUMA, ISSN-e 2171-892X, Nº. 20, 2012
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo (pdf)
• Resumen
  • español

    La pérdida de agua en las redes de abastecimiento tiene importantes repercusiones no sólo desde el punto de vista ambiental sino también económico. En este contexto, el objetivo de este trabajo es analizar la eficiencia tanto económica como técnica de una muestra de empresas que suministran agua potable considerando las fugas de agua como output no deseado. Así mismo se investiga la posible relación entre las tarifas del agua y la ineficiencia de las empresas. Para ello se usa el análisis envolvente de daos (DEA). Los resultados muestran que existen importantes opciones para reducir las pérdidas de agua y consecuentemente significativas posibilidades de ahorro económico para las empresas. El análisis desarrollado en este trabajo muestra la utilidad que tiene la evaluación de la eficiencia como herramienta para mejorar la gestión de los servicios de suministro de agua potable.

  • English

    Water leaks in supply networks have significant implications not only from an environmental point of view but also economics. In this context, the aim of this article is to assess both the economic and technical efficiency of a sample of water supply companies considering leakages as an undesirable output. Moreover, it is investigated the possible relationship between water rates and the inefficiency of the companies. For these analysis we use a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The results show that there are important options to reduce water leaks and consequently significant opportunities to save costs. The assessment developed in this work shows the usefulness of the efficiency assessment as a tool to improve the management of water supply services.

• Referencias bibliográficas
  • Arbués, F., García-Valiñas, M.A. and Martínez-Espiñeira, R. (2003). “Estimation of residential water demand: a state-of-the-art review”. Journal...
  • Bhattacharyya, A.; Harris, T.R.; Narayanan, R. and Ralfee, K. (1995). “Specification and estimation to the effect of ownership on the economic...
  • Cabrera, E., Cabrera Rochera, E. and Cobacho, R. (2010). “Water supply in urban areas”, in A. Garrido and R. Llamas (Eds.), Water Policy in...
  • Charnes, A., Cooper, W.W., and Rhodes, E. (1978). “Measuring the efficiency of decision making units”. European Journal of Operational Research,...
  • Colombo, A.F. and Karney, B.W. (2002). “Energy and costs of leaky pipes: Towards comprehensive picture”. Journal of Water Resources Planning...
  • Färe, R. and Grosskopf, S. (2004). New Directions: Efficiency and Productivity, Kluwer, Dordrecht.
  • Färe, R., Grosskopf, S. and Lovell, C.A.K. (1994). Production Frontiers, Cambridge University Press.
  • Färe, R., Grosskopf, S., Lovell, C.A.K. and Pasurka, C. (1989). “Multilateral Productivity Comparisons when some Outputs are Undesirable:...
  • Garcia-Valiñas, M.A. (2005). “Efficiency and equity in natural resources pricing: A proposal fir urban water distribution”. Environmental...
  • Garcia-Valiñas, M. A. and Muñiz, M. A. (2007). ”Is DEA useful in the regulation of water utilities?”. Applied Economics, 39(2), 245-252.
  • Gomes, E.G. and Lin M.P.E. (2008). “Modelling undesirable outputs with zero sum gains data envelopment analysis models”. Journal of the Operational...
  • Hadi Venchen, A., Kazemi Martin, R. and Tavassoli Kajani, M. (2005). “Undesirable factors in efficiency measurement”. Applied Mathematics...
  • Hernández Sancho, F. and Sala-Garrido, R. (2009). “Technical efficiency and cost analysis in wastewater treatment processes: A DEA approach”....
  • Marques, R. (2008). “Comparing private and public performance of Portuguese water services”. Water Policy, 10(1), 25-42.
  • Marques, R.C. (2010). “Regulation of water and wastewater services: An international comparison”. IWA Publishing, London.
  • Picazo Tadeo, A.J., Saez-Fernandez, F.J., and Gonzalez-Gomez, F. (2009). “The role of environmental factors in water utilities’ technical...
  • Puust, R., Kapelan, Z., Savic, D.A. and Koppel, T. (2010). “A review of methods for leakage management in pipe networks”. Urban Water Journal,...
  • Resentí, S. (2000). “The Economics of water demand”, Kluwer Academic Press, Norwell.
  • Reynaud, A., 2003. “An econometric estimation of industrial water demand in France”. Environmental and Resources Economics, 25, 213-232.
  • Scheel, H. (2001). “Undesirable outputs in efficiency valuations”. European Journal of Operational Research, 132, 400-410.
  • Seiford, L.M. and Zhu, J. (2002). “Modeling undesirable factors in efficiency evaluation”. European Journal of Operational Research, 142,...
  • Sueyoshi, T. and Goto, M. (2011). “Measurement of returns to scale and damage to scale for DEA-based operational and environmental assessment:...
  • Thanassoulis, E. (2000). “The use of data envelopment analysis in the regulation of UK water utilities: water distribution”. European Journal...