Surkhandarya paired new pipes with utility benchmarking

Surkhandarya's water and sanitation project could have been a standard rehabilitation job: replace old assets, hold hygiene campaigns and leave. ADB's evaluation says the design instead added institutional support and sector-reform measures around the provincial water utility.

The useful move was to treat utility performance as a thing to be measured. Performance benchmarking gave the operator a way to see whether the new system was actually improving service rather than merely adding assets.

ADB assessed the project successful and said beneficiaries received improved water service. Its sharpest lesson was also the limit of the idea: benchmarking systems need sustained institutional support, or the indicator survives longer than the management practice.

Benchmark the operator while rebuilding

Benchmarking translated a vague reform goal into observable utility performance.

Pairing measurement with infrastructure made the asset handover less blind.

The evaluation preserved the operational lesson by naming the missing support needed to keep benchmarking alive.

Infrastructure programs work better when the operator's habits are redesigned with the asset; measurement needs an institutional owner or it fades.

ADB's evaluation rated the project successful, credited it with supporting sector reforms and improved provincial water service, and warned that sanitation and benchmarking targets needed more sustained backing after implementation.