Caribbean Water Study

The Caribbean Water Study describes the operational and financial performance of selected water utilities in the Caribbean as reported by the utilities as well as secodary sources, the situation of non-revenue water (NRW) among these utilities, the financial impact of COVID-19 on the utilites, and the issue of their resilience to natural disasters. Benchmarking of the key performance indicators for water utilities in the Caribbean shows how utilities are performing in relation to their peers across time. NRW is seen to be one of the biggest challenges for water utilities in the Caribbean and one of the most direct ways to improve a utilitys efficiency, financial performance, and quality of service. In addition, reducing NRW contributes significantly to climate change adaptation. Regarding financial impact of COVID-19, the Study found that due to the large decreases in non-residential consumption, most utilities registered a fall in revenues and in average tariffs. The Study elucidated the fact that their small size and limited resources of water utilities make it is difficult for them to recover from the devastation of a storm on their own and post-disaster response, natural disaster preparedness, investments to increase resiliency, and access to funds are of critical importance.