Decision Support System Tool for the Evaluation of Sustainability of Rural Water Supply Services
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Date
2017
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Since the globe managed to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to the platform to replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Sustainability has become a global concern. Even though the world achieved in meeting the MDG target for drinking water, we have to sustain the water supply services, especially the rural water supply services to ensure a change in the livelihood of the rural poor.
The main objective of this study is to formulate a DSS tool that can aid the rural water supply engineer and planner in decision making regarding to the sustainability of rural water supply services.
Three modules that comprises functionalities for data input, data analysis (data query) and display of results are employed in the computer program development using visual basic programming language by Microsoft Visual Studio Express. A user-friendly interface helps the navigation of the software easy. The DSS tool identifies the sustainability status of a particular water supply services and further goes to identify the factors behind it from the most affecting factor to the least affecting factor in a descending order. The DSS tool further scrutinizes and contrasts between different water supply sources in a district to decide which water source is more sustainable than other water sources presented in a woreda/district.
The Rural Water Supply Sustainability Evaluation DSS tool is applied on specific sites. The results are sustainability scoring values per the FIETS factor, per date, location and per administrative area (zone, district or sub-district levels).The results show increased social participation contributing to increased sustainability, schemes with distribution are more sustainable than isolated on spot schemes and increased cost recovery of the services contributing to increased sustainability of the rural water supply services.
It is recommended that, community contribution and social participation, ensuring cost recovery and developing services with distribution schemes than isolated spot schemes should be practiced to ensure sustainability of rural water supply services.
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Keywords
ural Water Supply Services, Evaluation, Decision Support System