Planning Small Water Supplies in Developing Countries; Final Research Summary 1969-1971
The research included two principal objectives: (1) develop a theoretical planning model for deciding water supply timing and scale in small communities of developing countries; (2) initiate field studies to obtain data on the parameters of the model to make it operational. The work of model development had to focus on several communities instead of only one. Additionally, time in the model had to be made discrete because budgets are imposed at fixed points in time. Finally, the model had to include the considerations of Manne's model pertinent to developing countries: economies of scale, water supply benefits, increasing demand, the discount rate, etc. While the first research objective is theoretical, the second is primarily applied. It was proposed to obtain at least preliminary information on water demand patterns in small communities, costs of water system construction, the economies of scale of water systems abroad, and by imputing, the benefits of publicly supplied water. All of the field data were obtained from Central America.