On Flood Occurrence and the Provision of Safe Drinking Water in Developing Countries
Posted: 18 Dec 2001
There are 2 versions of this paper
On Flood Occurrence and the Provision of Safe Drinking Water in Developing Countries
Abstract
Developing countries in South Asia and elsewhere are frequently ravaged by floods. An important part of most flood management programs is the provision of safe drinking water (SDW) to prevent the spread of diseases. How should a government agency that is interested in distributing SDW to flood victims, go about its task? Further, how might this agency maximize the net social benefit from the provision of SDW? Finally, given that SDW is a particularly scarce commodity in a flood situation, how likely is it that this agency will be unable to meet the stochastic demand for SDW? In this paper, we use queuing theory to shed light on these three questions regarding the disbursement of SDW to flood victims.
Note: This is a description of the paper and is not the actual abstract.
Keywords: Developing Country, Flood, Safe Drinking Water, Queuing Theory
JEL Classification: Q25, D81
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation