The Energy and Water Services Regulator of Uruguay (URSEA) has the legal authority to request that service providers submit the information required for the performance of their functions. Accordingly, URSEA issued Resolution No. 83 of 2009 regulating the delivery of accounting information for regulatory purposes in the drinking water and sanitation sector. The information to be provided, in addition to accounting information, defines the basic statistical information to be reported by providers, including 54 indicators that are divided into the following categories: Coverage, Physical Assets, Water Production, Company Staff and Environment.

For each of the indicators, the following references are to be established: category, information or name, unit of measurement and definition, as shown in the following example:

Among the indicators defined by the regulator, some of the most important are those associated with network coverage, metering coverage, water losses, drinking water quality and wastewater treatment level.

The National Public Utilities Authority (ASEP), Panama’s regulator, has the power to establish norms of efficiency, quality and other aspects of service provision that providers must comply with. Accordingly, the regulator has defined service quality goals establishing optimum quality levels for drinking water and sanitary sewerage service providers within the systems they operate in.

The service quality goals set forth by ASEP correspond to the following aspects: drinking water quality, network water pressure, continuity of supply, wastewater treatment, wastewater quality, sanitary sewerage overflows and response to queries and customers. For this purpose, the regulator sets forth seven (7) general indicators for the aqueduct service, five (5) for the sewerage service, three (3) for customer service and four (4) for measuring individual goals of each provider in relation to other aspects.

For each indicator, the regulator details elements such as: goal to be reached, measuring system, information delivery period, assessment period and compensation for non-compliance.

In line with its mandate to inform the public on water supply and sanitation issues, the Zambian regulator NWASCO publishes an annual sector report on the performance and status of the sector.

This sector report also highlights the performance of providers against set sector benchmarks derived from the Minimum Service Levels guidelines.

Benchmarking induces competition among commercial units by motivating a them to improve their own previous performance and to outperform others. Eight benchmarks have been set for major indicators, as follows.

In Australia, the Essential Services Commission (ESC), which is the multisector regulator in Victoria state, has adopted the following service quality indicators.