Integral drinking water management model in Iztapalapa, Mexico City

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to design a model to improve drinking water management in Iztapalapa, Mexico City from the perspective of managers and users of the service. Design/methodology/approach The research question was what elements should an integrated drinking water management model contain to improve drinking water management in Iztapalapa, Mexico City? The research design involved a mixed approach under document analysis, application of semi -structured interviews to four managers of drinking water and measuring perceived service quality and user satisfaction in 360 service users. It included concurrent validity and confirmatory factor analysis. Findings The integral drinking water management model is a multidimensional factorially confirmed construct, qualitatively conformed by nine management dimensions, four of perceived quality and three of service satisfaction from home users. Originality/value The study fills the gap of little research on drinking water from the perspective of managers and users of the service in a valid and reliable way in Iztapalapa, Mexico City, as no similar research has proposed an integral drinking water management model with the variables used in this research. The model can be applied by following the recommendations to improve water management, which contemplates Mexico’s levels of government to reform the regulations that fragments the management, and taking the budget into profitable activities that support the infrastructure and new water harvesting projects.