The objective of this work is to develop a decision support methodology intended for drinking water utility managers in order to support them in the challenge of achieving better performance in the management of the customer area. This methodology requires the prior collection of data for the identification of registered claims. Subsequently, an evaluation of the performance of the customer area defined by the objective ‘Better listening to customer claims’ will be carried out; this requires the structuring of the objective in a hierarchy based on indicators and the adoption of two adequate decision support tools, a fuzzy-AHP for weighting the elements and WASPAS for calculating the performance of the objective. An application is carried out on the water utility of the Wilaya of Bejaia (Algeria). The data collection enabled the identification of 19 types of claims divided into three aspects. The combination of fuzzy-AHP and WASPAS allowed assessment of the performance of the objective during the period 2014–2018 and to make a judgment on the national policy established. The results are satisfactory. Progress has been made in claims management, but the major difficulty lies in the claims processing relating to the quantitative aspect.
Algeria is currently experiencing a real water shortage and leaks in the distribution networks, which affect the water supply. To reduce losses, the authorities have adopted a rehabilitation policy that requires resources that are not necessarily available. In this context, the aim of this study is to develop a decision support methodology for managers to enable them to plan urgent rehabilitation and to evaluate the benefits generated. The methodology consists of two phases: the diagnostic phase to identify a set of criteria, taking into account national specificities, and the planning phase, including the choice of Fuzzy-AHP for weighting and PROMETHEE II for ranking. An application is carried out on the Fouka network in Bejaia city (Algeria), consisting of 204 pipes. The application enabled the 204 pipes to be ranked in order of urgency and the benefits generated to be assessed in terms of environmental, economic, social, and technical parameters. The recovered water is significant in the first 60% of rehabilitated pipes. Investment costs are recovered within 3 years of the network being fully rehabilitated. The average reduction in network age is 5 years for every 10% of pipes rehabilitated. Complaints will be 0 after 70% of the pipes are rehabilitated.
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