Research
Publication
Zhai, C., Bretthauer, K., Mejia, J., & Pedraza-Martinez, A. (2023). Improving drinking water access and equity in rural Sub-Saharan Africa. Production and Operations Management, 32 (9) 2921-2939
Finalist in the M&SOM Student Paper Competition (2022).
Finalist in POMS College of Humanitarian Operations and Crisis Management Best Paper Competition (2021).
This paper focuses on the optimal locations for building new water projects, which is a primary operational response for many NGOs in the field of rural water supply. We first develop a decentralized water project location optimization model based on current practice of a decentralized decision-making and project management system and an equal per-beneficiary budget. We further propose three new models to improve both water access and equity: a minimax model, an equitable budget model, and a centralized model that leverages the existing community involvement. Through numerical studies, we find that when two neighboring communities can collaborate, the centralized model dominates. However, when neighboring communities cannot collaborate, the numerical results suggest that the NGO should choose different models based on groundwater distribution (evenly vs. unevenly) and the goal of the NGO. Lastly, motivated by the current civil war in Ethiopia, we develop a stochastic model to study how to improve drinking water access while mitigating the negative impact of water project supply shocks such as war. Our work provides a generalizable and scalable methodology and managerial insights to NGOs building new water projects by combining large geo-coded data sets and field data.
Under Submission
Keep Water Flowing: The Hidden Crisis of Rural Water Management
Reject and resubmit at Manufacturing and Service Operations Management.
Job market paper
Authors: Chengcheng Zhai, Rodney Parker, Kurt Bretthauer, Jorge Mejia, Alfonso J. Pedraza-Martinez.
In rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), people rely on communal handpumps for clean drinking water. But these handpumps break down frequently. Thus, it is crucial to proactively maintain and reactively repair these handpumps to ensure continuing access to water. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) face the challenge of implementing an effective maintenance program, which includes scheduling mechanic visits to service water points to minimize water point downtime and associated logistics cost, collecting handpump functionality information, and choosing their logistical approach of being proactive or reactive. We first conducted field research in Ethiopia and Malawi to understand the context and problem of water maintenance. We then collected 56,344 water point functionality observations from NGOs implementing water point maintenance programs in the Central African Republic, Ethiopia, and Malawi. Lastly, we develop a Markov decision process that determines the optimal schedule for NGO mechanics to visit water points. We apply the optimization model to data from the three countries to identify the gap between practice and optimality, while exercising two heuristic policies (cyclic and responsive) observed in practice. The optimization model reduces water point downtime by as little as 19.3% in Ethiopia and as much as 49.8% in Malawi, at a minor increase in logistics cost, if any. The responsive (cyclic) heuristic policy is more effective when repair demand is low (high). The availability of functionality information is more valuable in reducing downtime and logistics cost when the NGO is less financially constrained. Our results challenge the prevailing belief among NGOs that preventive maintenance is excessively costly. We recommend NGOs incorporate preventive maintenance in their programs. We also recommend resource constrained NGOs invest in increasing water point reliability and reducing major repair costs before expanding functionality information collection. Our findings provide valuable insights for NGOs seeking to enhance existing or implement new maintenance programs.
Work in Progress
Increasing Donations for Funding Rural Water Supply Through Operational Transparency
Authors: Chengcheng Zhai, Kurt Bretthauer, Jorge Mejia, Alfonso J. Pedraza-Martinez.
Work in progress
This paper investigates the use of operational performance data generated at each communal handpumps in rural SSA, to increase donations. We focus on charity: water’s development of sensors that monitor water flow and enable local NGOs to monitor handpump functionality. In this research, we study how to use such unprecedented level of operational transparency to increase donation. We conduct controlled laboratory experiment, using a between-subject design. We consider five treatments that represent different transparency information. We ask participants if they are willing to donate once or monthly and how much they would like to donate. We are currently conducting the laboratory experiment. We expect this research to contribute to the operations management literature through showing what operational transparency rewards the NGOs: does it reward the NGOs for showcasing excellent performance, detecting breakdowns, meeting the needs through repairing broken water points, or identifying the needs through identifying broken water points? We expect to show how operational transparency data can increase donation level. We also expect to contribute to the study of donors’ commitment to the cause and to the organization through the monthly donation option, which has not been studied in the operations management literature. The results of this research can provide insights into how NGOs can increase donations and donor retention by utilizing operational transparency data. We are also collaborating with charity: water to run a field experiment on their website.