Walker Nathan L, Styles David, Williams A Prysor
School of Natural Sciences, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Bangor University, Gwynedd, UK.
School of Engineering, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland.
Util Policy. 2023 Jun;82:101550. doi: 10.1016/j.jup.2023.101550. Epub 2023 Apr 7.
The outbreak of COVID-19 led to restrictions on movements and activities, which presented a serious challenge to the resilience of the water sector. It is essential to understand how successfully water companies responded to this unprecedented event so effective plans can be built for future disruptive events. This study aimed to evaluate how the water sectors in the UK and Ireland were affected from a holistic sustainability and resilience-based perspective. Using pre-COVID data for 18 indicators of company performance and comparing them to the first year of the pandemic, the direction and magnitudes of change varied across companies. Financial indicators were significantly negatively affected, with , , and , exhibiting the greatest average declines of 21%, 21%, and 18%, respectively, a trend that would be dangerous to provisions and company operations if continued. Despite this, service and environmental indicators improved during the first year of the pandemic, exemplified by , , and decreasing by a mean average of 37%, 32%, and 27%, respectively. Analysis using the Hicks-Moorsteen Productivity Index concluded that average productivity increased by 35%. The results suggest that the water sector was relatively resilient to the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of services, but adverse effects may have manifested in a deteriorated financial position that could exacerbate future challenges arising from exogenous pressures such as climate change. Specific advice for the UK water sector is to scrutinize non-critical spending, such as shareholder payments, during periods of economic downturn to ensure essential capital projects can be carried out. Although results are temporal and indicator selection sensitive, we recommend that policy, regulation, and corporate culture embrace frameworks that support long-term resilience to since the relative success in response to COVID-19 does not guarantee future success against differing challenges. This study generates a timely yet tentative insight into the diverse performance of the water sector during the pandemic, pertinent to the water industry, regulators, academia, and the public.
新冠疫情的爆发导致人员流动和活动受限，这给水行业的恢复能力带来了严峻挑战。了解水务公司如何成功应对这一前所未有的事件至关重要，以便能够制定有效的未来应对突发情况的计划。本研究旨在从整体可持续性和恢复力的角度评估英国和爱尔兰的水行业受到了怎样的影响。利用疫情前18项公司绩效指标的数据，并将其与疫情第一年的数据进行比较，各公司变化的方向和幅度各不相同。财务指标受到显著负面影响，其中[具体指标1]、[具体指标2]和[具体指标3]平均降幅最大，分别为21%、21%和18%，如果这种趋势持续下去，对供应和公司运营将是危险的。尽管如此，在疫情的第一年，服务和环境指标有所改善，例如[具体指标4]、[具体指标5]和[具体指标6]分别平均下降了37%、32%和27%。使用希克斯 - 穆尔斯汀生产率指数进行的分析得出，平均生产率提高了35%。结果表明，水行业在服务方面对新冠疫情具有相对较强的恢复力，但不利影响可能表现为财务状况恶化，这可能会加剧未来气候变化等外部压力带来的挑战。针对英国水行业的具体建议是，在经济低迷时期审查非关键支出，如股东分红，以确保能够开展必要的基本建设项目。尽管结果具有时效性且指标选择具有敏感性，但我们建议政策、监管和企业文化采用支持长期恢复力的框架，因为对新冠疫情的相对成功应对并不能保证未来面对不同挑战时也能成功。本研究及时但初步地洞察了疫情期间水行业的多样表现，对水行业、监管机构、学术界和公众都具有相关性。
