Building a "regulator 2.0" for local governance of public water and sanitation services

Abstract

The water and sanitation service is organized at the local level, by the municipality or by a group of municipalities. The legality control, the auditing of accounts and the control of the respect of sanitary and environmental standards, applicable to the services, do not allow to fully account for the efficiency of the service and remain insufficient to analyze its inscription in the long-term strategy that the asset management of the infrastructures supposes. It is therefore necessary to develop a regulatory system based on the publication on the Internet of technical and economic data that allows local analysis of the efficiency of the service and the relevance of its medium- and long-term technical strategies. The information system for water and wastewater services will thus play the role of a "regulator 2.0", by fueling the local debate between the users of the service, the operational structure, whether it is managed or delegated, and the local authority responsible for the governance of the service.