3rd International Rainwater Cistern Systems Conference
Khon Kaen, Thailand - January, 1987

Section D: Policy and Planning

Paper D.2

Assessing the Tradeoffs between Cost and Reliability for Water Supply Alternatives for Micronesian Communities

James J. Geselbracht
Environmental Engineer
Kereomel Environmental Systems. Analysts
305 W. Washington, #l, Champaign, IL 61820
USA

Objectives- which might be important in analyzing water supply a1ternatives for Micronesian communities are minimizing cost, maximizing hydrologic reliability, maximizing water quality, maximizing central control, and ; minimizing the organizational requirement. Several water supply alternatives are considered for the community of Colonia, Yap. These options are the existing method of centralized water supply, decentralized rainwater catchment (RWC) systems, and a dual supply approach which uses a centralized system to satisfy the semi-potable demands and decentralized RWC systems to satisfy the potable demands. A computer model which simulates the daily change in storage tank water level is used to design the RWC system. Results indicate that while RWC systems may be more expensive or have lower hydrologic reliability and give the government less central control over water supply, they have a lower organizational requirement which might, allow the water quality criteria to be met more reliably.

PDF of full document available to members (15pp, 490kb)