Sala-Garrido Ramon, Mocholi-Arce Manuel, Molinos-Senante Maria, Maziotis Alexandros
Departament of Mathematics for Economics, University of Valencia, Avd. Tarongers S/N, Valencia, Spain.
Departamento de Ingeniería Hidráulica Y Ambiental, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Avda. Vicuña Mackenna, 4860, Santiago, Chile.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2023 Jan;30(2):3222-3234. doi: 10.1007/s11356-022-22400-6. Epub 2022 Aug 9.
Getting a good understanding regarding the economic and environmental performance of water utilities is of great importance to achieve the goal of an efficient and sustainable industry. In this study, we apply the range adjusted measure (RAM) data envelopment analysis (DEA) model to evaluate the integrated (production and environmental) efficiency of several water utilities located in Chile. Integrated efficiency is evaluated using the concepts of natural and managerial disposability. This approach further allows us to quantify the contribution of each input and undesirable product on efficiency scores. The results highlighted that the Chilean water industry showed high levels of production and environmental efficiency over time. Under natural disposability, water utilities could control production costs to reduce water leakage and unplanned water supply interruptions by 3.3% on average. Under managerial disposability, water utilities could further cut down undesirable outputs by 1.4% on average by adopting best managerial practices. On average, potential savings in operating costs, employment, water leakage, and unplanned water supply interruptions were higher for concessionary utilities as they showed slightly lower efficiency scores than full private utilities.
深入了解自来水公司的经济和环境绩效对于实现高效且可持续的行业目标至关重要。在本研究中，我们应用范围调整测度（RAM）数据包络分析（DEA）模型来评估智利几家自来水公司的综合（生产和环境）效率。综合效率是使用自然和管理可处置性的概念来评估的。这种方法还使我们能够量化每个投入和非期望产出对效率得分的贡献。结果表明，智利的自来水行业长期以来展现出较高的生产和环境效率水平。在自然可处置性条件下，自来水公司能够控制生产成本，平均将漏水和非计划供水中断减少3.3%。在管理可处置性条件下，自来水公司通过采用最佳管理实践，平均可进一步将非期望产出减少1.4%。平均而言，特许经营的自来水公司在运营成本、就业、漏水和非计划供水中断方面的潜在节省更高，因为它们的效率得分略低于完全私营的自来水公司。
