JalTantra: A System for the Design and Optimization of Rural Piped Water Networks

AbstractThe authors discuss their development of JalTantra, a web system that aids government engineers in India in designing piped water systems that provide an adequate quality of service to meet citizens’ needs for drinking water at a cost below that mandated by strict government norms.Government bodies responsible for drinking water distribution in India face the challenging task of designing schemes that provide a quality of service that is adequate to meet the needs of citizens at a cost below the strict government norms. Engineers at these government bodies must undertake the design process using tools that are not optimal and consider only pipe diameter selection, which is only one component of the entire scheme design. As such, much of the design process is undertaken in an ad hoc and heuristic manner, relying on the experience and intuition of the engineers. We developed JalTantra, a web system that aids these government engineers in sizing both pipe diameters and the various other water network components, such as tanks, pumps, and valves. We use an integer linear program model, which allows us to solve the problem optimally and quickly.