TECHNICAL, FINANCIAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE CAPACITY EVALUATIONS AND IMPROVEMENT OF SMALL COMMUNITY WATER SYSTEMS IN PUERTO RICO

摘要

In Puerto Rico, 3% of the population gets its drinking water from approximately 250 small community water systems, that are managed by the communities but still have to fully comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act and state regulations. This study had a duration of two years and its objective was the evaluation of 48 community water systems in Puerto Rico with a Capacity Development Form (CDF) which measures their technical, administrative and financial capacity and combines it into a total capacity rating. There was an initial and final evaluation to measure changes in capacity once the needs where identified at the beginning and a circuit rider program was implemented. A scale from 0 to 100% was used to measure each capacity. It was found that on average the aqueducts had a total capacity of 47% at the beginning, but at the end they improved on the three categories. The level of improvement varied with factors like the level of commitment of the community leader with the aqueduct, the economic means of the community and the education of its members. These factors, which are numerically intangible because they have to do with environmental justice more that with numbers, were not assessed by the CDF.