Example of a public actor: The Role of regulators in the water sector
Therefore, SAIs across the world are increasingly conducting performance audits to assess compliance of the W&S sector to established standards, including water and sanitation quality standards. In Mexico’s State of Veracruz, the state audit authority conducted a performance audit of local municipalities’ water and sanitation departments and found that 53% of households were connected to the water distribution network and only 17% of households were connected to proper sewage facilities. Barely 15% of wastewater was treated before it was released back into water systems. These figures were well below the national average, where 98.4% of the population has access to piped drinking water and 98.9% has access to proper sewage facilities (UNDP, 2012).
Public perception surveys of consumers are another useful tool for assessing the performance of the W&S utilities (as you will learn in detail in lesson 7).