Performance Assessment of Water Supply Scheme; A Case of Mangadh Water Supply Scheme, Nepal

Abstract

The basic level water supply coverage of Nepal is 87.22% and among the water supply
schemes providing service to the people only 28.13% of the schemes are fully
functional. The reason behind this state of higher percentage of non-functionality and
ill performance of developed schemes is a matter of study. Thus, the main aim of this
study is to access the overall performance; technical performance, financial
performance and institutional performance with implementation status of water safety
plan of Mangadh Water Supply Scheme; a water service provider supplying water to
population of rapidly growing urban area of Biratnagar Metropolitan City of Nepal.
Generating primary and secondary data from questionnaire survey, field visits,
laboratory tests, focal group discussion, key informant interviews, journals, articles and
annual reports, the performance indicators suggested by different national and
international organizations for performance assessment of water service providers
wereanalyzed. From data analysis, results regarding technical performance showed that
water supply coverage of the scheme was 46.29%. Though the production population
was 105 lpcd, per capita consumption was only 65.46 lpcd. The scheme intermittently
supplied water for 6.5 hours a day through fully metered connections. The condition of
physical structure was good giving a physical structure index of 78.89%. The
distribution mains density was found to be 4.39 Km/Km2
and quality of water supplied
was within Nepal Drinking Water Quality Standards, representing good performance in
overall technical aspect.Regarding institutional performance, results showed that the
functionality index of the system was 90%, staff ratio was 5.81 staffs per 1000
connections, individual capacity of the WSUC members obtained 7.67, 8.0, 8.33 out of
10 in institutional, financial and technical management respectively whereas WSUC
staffs obtained 7, 9.67, 8.67 out of 10 in water quality knowledge, office management
and technical knowledge respectively. The implementation status of water safety plan
was well functioning with high concerns and consciousness of consumers in
importance of water quality on public health though more than 46.9% of people
directly uses water from tap for drinking, indicating an overall best performance in
institutional aspect. In context of financial performance, the personnel cost was
62.33%. The unit production cost was found to be NRs. 12.01 per cubic meter of water
but the average tariff was NRs. 12.59 per cubic meter. The operating ratio was 0.95 and
a non-revenue water of 37.99% representing satisfactory financial performance.