Paper
Benchmarking in the water industry: a mature practice?
Publish year
2008
Magazine
Water Utility Management International
Number
Volume 3, Issue 2
Pages in which appears this paper
5-7
Date
June 2008
Abstract
Since the word benchmarking started to appear in the water industry in the mid 1990s, the development of the tool has been tremendous.However, only in the past few years has the practice been extended on a global basis. In this issue you will find a good collection of ongoing benchmarking projects around the world.They are success stories in which the investment in time and resources is paying back to those that have taken the risks of undertaking a benchmarking effort.

And yet,despite the many initiatives which can be found around the world, the abundant literature published on the topic and the success stories that accompany these projects, the methodologies underlying this single term‘benchmarking’ are very diverse and often subject to significant shortcomings.

Without a doubt, in the following years the challenge will be to develop a common understanding of what benchmarking is and which are the key elements that are necessary in the development of a successful benchmarking project.The IWA Benchmarking Task Group may play an important role and achieve similar results to the ones obtained in the field of performance indicators.