Benchmarking risk management within the international water utility sector. PartI: Design of a capability maturity methodology.

Risk management in the water utility sector is becoming increasingly explicit.However, due to the novelty and complexity of the discipline, utilities areencountering difficulties in defining and institutionalising their riskmanagement processes. In response, the authors have developed a sector specificcapability maturity methodology for benchmarking and improving risk management.The research, conducted in consultation with water utility practitioners, hasdistilled risk management into a coherent, process-based framework. Weidentified eleven risk management processes, and eight key attributes withcharacterise the extent to which these processes are defined, controlled andinstitutionalised. Implementation of the model should enable utilities to moreeffectively employ their portfolio of risk analysis techniques for optimal,credible and defensible decision making.