ISO 24000 STANDARDS FOR ASSESSING WATER UTILITIES

ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies(ISO member bodies). Its work is to prepare International Standards,normally carried out through ISO technical committees.
It has announced the preparation of three standards series, related with drinking water and wastewater,which include:

ISO 24510 – Service activities relating to drinking water and wastewater – Guidelines for the improvement and for the assessment of the service to users.
ISO 24511 – Service activities relating to drinking water and wastewater – Guidelines for the management of wastewater utilities and for the assessment of wastewater services.
ISO 24512 – Service activities relating to drinking water and wastewater – Guidelines for the management ofdrinking water utilities and for the assessment of drinking water services.

The ISO 24511 and ISO 24512 standards address successively the following topics:
- Brief description of the physical/infrastructural and managerial/institutional components of utilities,
- Core objectives for water services, considered to be globally relevant at the broadest level,
- Guidelines for the management of the utilities,
- Examples of possible actions that may be taken to achieve the objectives,
- Service assessment criteria related to the objectives,
- Performance indicators linked to the criteria that may be used for assessing the performance of the service.
Under these standards, the aim of the water utilities should be to provide services to everybody in their area, with continuous supply of drinking water and with collection and treatment of wastewater, under economicand social conditions that are acceptable both for users and relevant authorities. Water utilities are expected to meet the requirements of relevant authorities and the expectations specified by the responsible bodies in conjunction with the other stakeholders, while ensuring the long-term sustainability of the service.
In spite that these standards will not be mandatory, the objective of the standards is to provide the relevant stakeholders with guidelines for defining and assessing the services provided and for improving the management of water and wastewater utilities, consistently with the overarching objectives fixed by the national competent authorities and by the international intergovernmental organizations.
Standards' publication is announced for July 2007.