Water supply management indicators for urban areas to assess its sustainability

The management of drinking water in urban areas represents one of the greatest challenges today. Therefore, this challenge to supply of drinking water and sewerage has led society to explore new strategies in water management. This document explores the performance of the evaluation indicators for water resource management applied to water supply services at national and international levels. With the objective to propose indicators related to water management, also oriented to the human right to water and a healthy environment, and in accordance with the Sustainable Development objective 6 (SDG-6). It is proposed to evaluate both qualitative and quantitative indicators, through a review of the literature and selection criteria such as: applicability, relevance, existing data, as well as local characteristics according to the management given to water resources. The results obtained by applying the Hierarchical Analysis of Processes (AHP) methodology, how the most relevant indicators for the management of water resources in a water supply service, in which place multidisciplinary, comprehensive and sustainable solutions are required. The availability of data for the application of the proposed indicators was verified. It is concluded that from this approach, there are indicators oriented to socio-environmental approaches that have an impact on sustainable water management in a way that contributes to the design, monitoring, evaluation and decision making of public policies focused on the water utility in an integral manner.