06 ตุลาคม 2564
Provincial Waterworks Authority (PWA) governor, Mr. Somboon Sunanthapongsak is aiming to flagship the Effective Utility Management (EUM) to speed up the growth profit and sustain the technical managerial and financial capacity of water supply in Thailand.
"This is the first time that water utility sector like us and that would be the very first water utility sectorin Thailand has brought the updated EUM primer (2017) back into the limelight account for up tospeed during this difficult time", said Mr. Somboon, the PWA governor, during a virtual conference.
Why EUM
"It will show PWA's commitment to sustainable business in line with the water saving trend towardsthe year 2020 was marked by the pandemic, which forced us to adapt quickly. In 2021, the trends forthe water industry will center on further accelerating the changes implemented last year. Thistransformation will essentially be digital and lean in the management process so now it is the perfecttime to catch up"
"One technique that some utilities have used to drive performance in conjunction with EUM is Lean,which is a set of principles and methods focused on the systematic elimination of non-value-addedactivity. Lean offers several methods that help to ensure that resources are being used in the mosteffective way possible", he emphasized.
What is EUM
Water and wastewater utilities across the country are facing many common challenges, includingrising costs, aging infrastructure, increasingly stringent regulatory requirements, population changes,and a rapidly changing workforce. Effective utility management can help utilities respond to bothcurrent and future challenges and support utilities in their common mission of being successful 21stcentury service providers. Based on these challenges, EPA and ten national water and wastewaterassociations signed an historic agreement to jointly promote effective utility management based onthe Ten Attributes of Effectively Managed Water Sector Utilities and five Keys to ManagementSuccess. This Primer is an outgrowth of that agreement and distills the experience of a group of leadersin water and wastewater utility management into a framework intended to help utility managersidentify and address their most pressing needs through a customized, incremental approach that isrelevant to the day-to-day challenges’ utilities face.
The first launch of the campaign became available on July 9, 2021 before a full-scale launch of selfassessment process by the end of September this year.
"We are trying to synergise across the 234 waterworks via this EUM framework to develop an ecosystem of services that creates incremental value for customers," Mr.Somboon said.
