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Deficient maintenance management of water distribution systems is an issue in many countries around the world. In northeast Brazil, losses of water during its distribution has reached 42.7 %. Maintenance planning is essential to improve efficiency in a water distribution system. Therefore, a framework was proposed that combines Strategic Options Development and Analysis (SODA) with the ELECTRE TRI-nC method to sort areas into criticality categories in order to determine priorities for monitoring a maintenance service. To provide a global characterization, three categories are recognized: “Not critical,” “Moderately critical,” and “Highly critical.” The proposed framework is applied in a real case study of a municipality located in the northeast of Brazil (Itamaraca/Pernambuco). This framework provides (i) managerial priorities to support maintenance decisions that improve the action planning of the water company, (ii) formal and structured knowledge about the water distribution system, and (iii) benefits to society, such as improving the quality of service, reducing costs, and preserving water resources. Our study demonstrates that actions such as developing awareness -raising campaigns about the rational use of water, installing pressure and flow control valves and establishing sectorization in the network system are essential in order to improve how maintenance is managed.