Asset Management for Water

Worldwide, governments, municipalities, as well as owners, managers and operators of water and wastewater systems are increasingly faced with the challenges of doing more with less financial resources—expanding and sustaining safe and reliable services with aging water and wastewater assets and decreased or limited funding. With this also comes the difficulty in discerning where to invest next to optimize the use of existing assets—or even where the greatest likelihood of asset failure and risk will occur, along with their accompanying consequences. 

Added to these complexities are external forces acting upon the industry as a whole to require more effective responses such as increased pressure from the public demand for improved service levels and lower costs; regulatory compliance; population growth; greater gaps between projected water supplies and water demands; business transparency; and mega trends in environmental sustainability, climate change, and infrastructure resiliency.

Whether water and wastewater systems are publicly or privately owned, are aged or underfunded, clearly the management of assets can no longer be purely reactive. A proactive approach that efficiently and effectively manages water and wastewater systems is essential to ensure long-term sustainability, resilience and security. This is where WSP’s asset management capabilities come in. 

WSP’s goal is to help our clients respond to asset management drivers and customer needs in a cost-effective way by helping them set long-term goals, identify high priority gaps and opportunities, and manage their greatest risks. Our goal is also to challenge preconceived notions and assumptions in order to provide prudent and efficient capital works programs based on the client’s accepted risk profile and budget, as well as to help design sustainable tariff structures that can adequately support water and wastewater services. 

Key Benefits of WSP’s Asset Management Approach

This approach delivers key benefits: 

• Better understanding of existing system performance and condition, as well as level of service through the development and use of robust planning tools.
• Capital works cost saving and/or deferral potential through existing asset optimization and utilization.
• Reduced risks in design and construction stages through development of constructible solutions which consider safety, operational flexibility and future operational needs.
• Improved value for money by identifying solutions that satisfy technical, regulatory, environmental, economy, social and sustainability requirements.
• Pricing structures that meet the cost of sustainability requirements for water, wastewater and storm water systems.     

What Exactly Does Asset Management Encompass?

Asset management is an integrated strategy to manage capital assets, operating and maintenance tasks and costs, and long-term financial planning to provide appropriate levels of service. A fundamental principle in asset management is to help decision-makers resolve how to optimize the use of scarce resources to deliver service, and to demonstrate to stakeholders that capital expenditure and operational expenditure investments are focused on areas that have the biggest impact.

Building a world-class asset management program involves tackling multiple elements across strategy, process, operations and systems. Understanding where to start and how to put the pieces together into a long-term plan is the challenge. WSP’s Asset Management Capability Assessment Model provides an assessment of an organization’s asset maturity. The output is used to evaluate and benchmark an organization, and support the development of an asset management improvement program. The structure and approach ensure consistent and repeatable assessment, and provide access to a significant global benchmark pool.

WSP draws on decades of experience, with core elements of our successful implementation of asset management plans and programs including helping clients to build strategic foundations, to establish service levels and performance baselines, and to develop realistic and integrated capital and financial plans. 

Our expert team includes authors of and key contributors to international guidelines and best practice development, including the International Standard for Asset Management Systems and ISO 55001: 2014. Given the multiple services available within our asset management program, WSP is well positioned to address specific pain points in water, wastewater and stormwater system management. We can help clients capture and analyze data about the assets themselves—their condition, location and real value—and help them make smarter, more cost-effective decisions to better understand their largest risks and avoid critical failures within their water infrastructure. 

Making Asset Management For Water and Wastewater Operational

Water is crucial to the very survival of our communities as a basic necessity for human health and well-being as well as for the production of food, for commercial and industrial processes, and for energy generation.

Ensuring an understanding of specific drivers and gaps, and focusing on initiatives that are impactful to client organizations and deliver quantifiable results are of utmost importance. While approaches may vary, the fundamental objective of adopting a “business-like” approach to the management of assets and objectively balancing risk, costs, and service level holds true.    

As clients move through the various phases of asset management improvement programs, WSP helps service providers make informed decisions on asset rehabilitation, repair and replacement; unravel real-world challenges; and improve the services they deliver through more efficient and economic use of infrastructure and facilities they manage. WSP also provides the adapted tariff structures and rates they need—doing the right work, at the right time, for the right cost.

Services

WSP’s asset management services include:

Strategic

1. Capability assessments and improvement programs
2. Business transformation design and culture development
3. ISO-55001:2014Business process analysis
4. EAM/other technology solution planning, integration and acquisition
5. Competence and training

Tactical

1. Evidence based 
2. Risk and vulnerability assessments
3. Reliability programs
4. Capital planning and program optimization
5. Performance metrics and measurement
6. Asset Management Plans

Operational

1. Inventory collection
2. Condition assessment
3. Failure analysis
4. AMO services
5. Network management

WSP’s comprehensive know-how within the water, wastewater and storm water sectors gives us unrivalled forecasting abilities that help optimize investment, bring cost and service level benefits, and maximize asset longevity and value. We have led implementations around the world and have developed roadmaps on how to improve the asset management of water and wastewater systems through changing processes, developing staff and investing in technology.