Identifying the Development of Urban Water and Wastewater Company Using Factor Analysis and Clustering Approaches

Given the environmental conditions governing it, its stakeholders' expectations and its organizational mission and in the context of supplying and distribution of water and safe disposal of wastewater, the water and wastewater sector needs to grow and develop in parallel to the changes in environmental conditions. For this reason identifying the development condition of the water and wastewater sector is a necessity in the context of targeting plans and strategies from the aspect of sectorial management and senior management. This research was undertaken to identify the level of development of the water and wastewater companies (35 companies) from the aspect of the different indicators specific to the water and wastewater industry in the context of clarifying the economic plans and to enhance and improve operational activities. In the course of the study, after identifying 18 indicators, the exploratory factor analysis was undertaken and the number of indicators was reduced to 5 significant factors. Then the combined indicator was calculated according to the weight of factors and the entire sector was classified. In continuation and by applying the hierarchal clustering method the development levels of water and wastewater companies were categorized on the basis of 5 factors in three homogenized groups of development. The study's results indicate an unbalanced and non-homogenous level of development in the sector, with some companies failing to achieve the desirable level of development and needing greater attention and planning to improve the developmental conditions.