Powering water supply in El Salado (Colombia) : analysis of scenarios and alternative selection

This thesis consists of a case study that regards water supply in Colombia. Specifically, Fondación Semana, an organisation involved in the post-conflict reconstruction of the country, has requested technical help to improve the current aqueduct of El Salado, a rural village in the Caribbean region. In order to satisfy this request, after an inspection in loco, it was possible to understand what the weaknesses of the water system are and thus on which areas to act. In particular, water purification, water pump energy supply and control system automation, are all critical aspects. Therefore, a theoretical analysis has allowed the selection of the possible improvements considering the local context. Among those, a pre-feasibility study has instead allowed to choose the only feasible ones for the specific case study. In particular, five systems were selected and after their description / sizing the Foundation was able to decide what the most suitable option for EL Salado is. However, many stakeholders such as the households and soldiers, who have different decision power, characterize the problem. Since the foundation has not applied any analytical decision method, this work analyses the problem with a more scientific approach in order to confirm / contradict the choice of the foundation. Considering the problem, the AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) decision method was selected also due to the availability of the Super Decision software. Once the hierarchy problem is set (goal, criteria, solution), the model proceeds with the definition of relevant indicators (quantitative and qualitative), the evaluation of each stakeholder’s preference and through assuming their decision power. The model output indicates the best one among the five alternatives. In this case, the solution differs from the one selected by Fundación Semana. This analysis has allowed to understand the criticism of a multicriteria mathematical model application when the influence of each stakeholder is not clear and delineated