Creating a national benchmarking system for the utilities of water supply and wastewater sector in Russia

Despite the vast resources of drinking water, Russia today is facing some serious problems in the water supply industry. The authors believe that creating a nation-wide benchmarking for Russia's water industry will play an important role in the development process for efficiently functioning water utilities. The main objective is to make improvements in quality of the services provided to the population and to rationalize the management methods by using the best practices and existing technologies as well as conducting a comprehensive integrated assessment of the general situation in the sector and at separate utilities. The article describes the steps taken by the management of Lipetsk Municipal Energy Company to organize benchmarking in the housing and communal utilities sector, mostly in water supply and wastewater services.