Performance Evaluation of Wastewater Treatment Plants Using DEA

In the past two to three decades environmental pollution caused by discharge of untreated wastewater in the open streams have been the problem of concern. Though we have water treatment facilities (STPs and WWTPs) available, their performance and operation and maintenance has been challenging which is a hindrance in the path of achieving sustainable goals. So, to reduce the cost of treatment and to achieve the environmental and economic sustainability in wastewater treatment use of advance tools like DEA are highlighted for efficient evaluation of performance of WWTPs. Improved performance would lead to the decrease in cost of treatment so the aspects of cost reduction are also highlighted by scrutinizing the significant variables affecting the efficiency of WWTPs. Method for evaluating the relative efficiencies of WWTPs is presented. Since, the relative efficiencies are calculated, the improvement in the performance of poorest performing plants with respect to top performer is possible. So, the factors that needs to be changed for improving the performance of poor performing plants are discussed in detail thereby making this work useful for WWTP managers and policy makers.