MANAGING MUNICIPAL SERVICE DELIVERY

Additional Toolkits

 

Technical Assessment Toolkit

A technical assessment is the first step in evaluating the quality of service provided by a municipal services system. The goal of the technical assessment is to evaluate the condition of the physical works, the efficiency and effectiveness of their operation, and the quality and coverage of services provided to customers.

The conclusions of technical assessments are used to identify capital improvement projects, maintenance programs and/or other operational interventions designed to improve service quality or coverage.

Methodological Overview

All technical assessments involve an evaluation of the condition of the physical assets and the deficiencies associated with them. This means preparing or checking an inventory of the assets, evaluating the conditions of different assets, and identifying the impacts on service quality of any assets in poor condition.

Technical assessments also typically include a review of the systems and procedures for delivering the service, such as operations schedules, maintenance programs, minor repair procedures, etc.

More detailed aspects of technical assessments vary according to the type of municipal service. For networked services such as water supply, wastewater, district heating and storm water drainage, the issue of losses is relevant. (For a discussion of losses, see the Technical Aspects, Operations and Maintenance page.) Technical assessments will determine the types and quantities of losses in the system and analyze their impact on service cost and/or quality.

For services that use energy for regular operations, such as water supply, wastewater and district heating, energy audits are useful tools that can contribute to technical assessments. Energy audits analyze the types and levels of energy consumption in the system and isolate by component and inordinately high levels of energy use.

Resources

Guidelines and Other Reports

PADCO/USAID, “Trainer’s Guide: Course on Technical and Organizational Assessment for Water/Wastewater Enterprises,” prepared under the Tariff Reform and Communal Services Enterprise Restructuring in Ukraine Project, 2003. Includes methodological guidelines on conducting water balance, water loss analysis and energy audits. Available from CDIE.

PADCO/USAID, “Trainer’s Guide: Course on Technical and Organizational Assessment for District Heating Enterprises,” prepared under the Tariff Reform and Communal Services Enterprise Restructuring in Ukraine Project, 2003. Includes methodological guidelines on conducting heat loss analysis and energy audits. Available from CDIE.

Weblinks

Various materials on technical assessments for water/wastewater and district heating utilities: http://tariffreform.padco.kiev.ua
EPANET, a PC-based program developed by the U.S. Environmental Projection Agency that performs extended period simulation of hydraulic and water-quality behavior within pressurized pipe networks. http://www.epa.gov/ORD/NRMRL/wswrd/epanet.html

USAID Specialists

• Andriy Mitskan, amitskan@usaid.gov
• Allen Eisendrath, aeisendrath@usaid.gov