NACWA is updating the membership on the availability of three new international standards on water and wastewater utility management.  With the support of the Targeted Action Fund (TAF), NACWA has been involved in this effort led by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) since 2004.  As a member of the U.S. delegation, NACWA representatives participated in several Technical Committee and workgroup-level meetings to help craft the standards and ensure the final standards did not conflict with current best practices in the U.S.

Like most ISO standards, the 24500 series standards are voluntary.  They were crafted to be as globally relevant as possible and are, therefore, fairly general.  Some countries have decided to formally adopt these standards and although the U.S. has not yet decided whether to adopt them, U.S. utilities can choose to adhere to the standards.  The final standards are available for purchase from ISO.  Ordering information is included below.

This Member Update provides a brief overview of the standards and outlines some planned work relating to asset management that NACWA and the U.S. delegation will likely track.

The New Standards

The final standards, ISO 24510, 24511, and 24512, were approved during a meeting in Tokyo, in November.  ISO 24510 applies to both water and wastewater and outlines some general objectives and expectations for utility service to users.  ISO 24511 and 24512 are specific to wastewater and drinking water respectively, and deal more with the management of the utility itself.  The brief lists below describing the content of each standard are taken directly from the standards.

ISO 24510 – Activities relating to drinking water and wastewater services — Guidelines for the assessment and for the improvement of the service to users.

This standard includes:

• A brief description of the components of the service relating to the users;
• Core objectives for the service, with respect to users’ needs and expectations;
• Guidelines for satisfying users’ needs and expectations;
• Assessment criteria for service to users in accordance with the provided guidelines;
• Examples of performance indicators linked to the assessment criteria that can be used for assessing the performance of the service.

ISO 24511 – Activities relating to drinking water and wastewater services — Guidelines for the management of wastewater utilities and for the assessment of wastewater services.

ISO 24512 – Activities relating to drinking water and wastewater services — Guidelines for the management of drinking water utilities and for the assessment of drinking water services.

These standards generally address the same utility management topics, but are tailored to wastewater (24511) and drinking water (24512).  These standards include the following:

• A brief description of the physical (infrastructure) and managerial (institutional) components of water/wastewater utilities;
• Core objectives for water/wastewater utilities, considered to be globally relevant at the broadest level;
• Guidelines for the management of the water/wastewater utilities;
• Guidelines for the assessment of the water/wastewater services with service assessment criteria related to the objectives, and performance indicators linked to these criteria.

Next Steps

Several countries are already considering adoption of the international standards.  The U.S. delegation, currently headed by the American Water Works Association (AWWA) under authority from the U.S. standards body, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), has not yet determined what its next steps will be.  Regardless, utilities in the U.S. and other countries are free to obtain the standards and begin to use them.

The Technical Committee that oversaw development of the standards will meet again in 2011.  At that time, the Technical Committee will consider feedback from early implementers of the standards and consider revising the standards as necessary.  Between now and 2011 the 24500 series standards are technically consider ‘guidelines.’  While they are considered standards for purposes of implementation, they will not formally receive this designation until the Technical Committee approves any revisions in 2011.

If any NACWA member utilities choose to implement these ISO guidelines, please keep us informed of such efforts by contacting Chris Hornback at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

New Work on Asset, Crisis Management/Security

During its meeting in November, the Technical Committee leading up the development of the 24500 series standards voted to form new workgroups on asset management and crisis management, which will include security issues.  These workgroups will meet once a year for the next three years to determine whether there is sufficient interest and information to consider pursuing standards in these areas.  NACWA will be asking its Board of Directors in February for additional TAF funding to ensure NACWA representatives can attend and participate in these workgroup meetings.

Ordering Information

Due to copyright restrictions, NACWA cannot make the standards available directly to its members.  Electronic copies may be ordered from ISO online at:  http://www.global.ihs.com (search by the five digit standard number).