title: Framework for continuous performance improvement in small drinking water systems.
abstract: Continuous performance improvement (CPI) can be a useful approach to overcome water quality problems impacting small communities. Small drinking water systems (SDWSs) struggle to meet regulatory requirements and often lack the economic and human resource flexibility for immediate improvement. A CPI framework is developed to provide SDWS managers and operators an approach to gauge their current performance against similar systems and to track performance improvement from the implementation of the new technologies or innovations into the future. The proposed CPI framework incorporates the use of a water quality index (WQI) and functional performance benchmarking to evaluate and compare drinking water quality performance of an individual water utility against that of a representative benchmark. The results are then used to identify and prioritize the most vulnerable water quality indicators and subsequently identify and prioritize performance improvement strategies. The proposed CPI framework has been demonstrated using data collected from SDWSs in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador (NL), Canada and using the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) WQI.
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering, University of British Columbia, Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7, Canada. Electronic address: tyberesk@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Ty
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bereskie
authors.affiliation: Civil Engineering Department, College of Engineering, Qassim University, Buradyah (52571), Qassim, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Husnain
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Haider
authors.affiliation: ESAD, Laval University, Quebec City, QC G1V 0A6, Canada.
authors.forename: Manuel J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Rodriguez
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering, University of British Columbia, Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7, Canada.
authors.forename: Rehan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sadiq
keywords: Benchmarking; Continuous performance improvement; Quality management; Small system; Water quality