12 / 2023-12-16 04:39:18

Evaluation of Institutional Models for Providing Drinking Water and Sanitation Services at Municipal Level. Case: San Joaquin Municipality, Venezuela

municipal model,water services,sanitation services

In this study, models for the provision of drinking water and sanitation services, were evaluated for the San Joaquin Municipality, Carabobo State, Venezuela, represented in the Municipal Autonomous Institute of Water of San Joaquin (IAGUASANJO, in Spanish) through three management indexes proposed in an integrated manner for drinking water and sanitation, a model index for provision of drinking water services and model index for provision of sanitation services. The method applied in this study comprised four phases: 1) identification institutional arrangement of companies providing DWSS in the SJM-CS, 2) analysis of DWSS provision models in the SJM-CS, 3) establishment of the management models of the DWSS provision in the SJM-CS, and 4) creation of DWSS provision model indexes in SJM-CS. The provision model of the drinking water and sanitation services (DWSS) in the San Joaquin Municipality (SJM), Carabobo state (CS), Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela resulted a type of direct-complex public management model represented by a horizontalized structure counting with participation of public companies-delegates in the representations of Central Hydrological Company (HIDROCENTRO) and the IAGUASANJO. Under this model, IAGUASANJO manages DWSS provision for community councils, private associations (urban planning condominiums) and industries that make up the territorial activities in the municipality. From its creation in 2020 to the present, IAGUASANJO has followed a perfect alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals in the frame of the Agenda 2030 established by United Nations. The model for DWSS provision in SJM-CS was represented by the evaluation of several water quality management indexes with approaches for human consumption and water for agricultural irrigation where excellent results were found, demonstrating the favorable levels of the physicochemical characteristics of the groundwaters from SJM-CS aquifer, constituting a safe water source to cover the demand required by the inhabitants of the SJM-CS. As well, in a specific way, this study has evaluated and proposed three management indexes, involving an index to take into account in an integrated manner to the provision of drinking water and sanitation services (IMPSAPS), a model index for the provision of drinking water services (IMPSAP) and model index for the provision of sanitation services (IMPSS), according to which IAGUASANJO has oriented 65 % of activities towards provision of sanitation services and 35 % of actions towards provision of drinking water services in period 2020-2023, leading to validate its actions to significantly improve the DWSS quality.