Housing typology in the forecast of demand for drinking water in developing country towns and cities: Application to Yaound-Cameroon

Type Journal Article - International Journal of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering
Title Housing typology in the forecast of demand for drinking water in developing country towns and cities: Application to Yaound-Cameroon
Author(s)
Volume 5
Issue 4
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2013
Page numbers 223-235
URL http://www.academicjournals.org/journal/IJWREE/article-full-text-pdf/9D99E173369
Abstract
The lack of mastery of housing problems in developing countries causes difficulties in the forecasting
of the demand for potable water, which in turn causes waste and high cost of water. We modeled the
forecasting of the demand for potable water in a city, taking into account the housing typology. The
latter depends on parameters such as: household income, size of households, price of water, annual
rainfall height, the average summer temperatures, the number of households and the number of
subscribers to the existing water distribution network. The stratification of a town was done using a
definition of the housing typology and using multiple linear regression, the total potable water
consumption was estimated to depend on the aforementioned parameters. This was applied to Yaoundé
in Cameroon for the years 2020 and 2035, and the results obtained yield forecasts for the demand for
potable water of 115 778 781 m3
and 281 815 641 m3
respectively, with a distribution yield of 70%. This
leads to the deduction that the demand for potable water, as well as investment requirements as
previously assessed were overestimated, thus restricting new extensions in the districts where the
drinking water problem of demand for drinking water was solvable.

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