Multicriteria Analysis of a Capacity Expansion Problem:Damaturu, Northeastern Nigeria as Case Study

1IntroductionThedecisionmakingprocessinWaterResourcesPlanningandMallagement(WRPM)isapublicplanningprocessandtheoptimumsolutionmustbeacceptedbydecisionmakerswhoinawayrepresentthegeneralPublic(Miloradov,M.etal.,1990).WRPMwithinaMulticriteriaAnalysis(MA)isacomplexanddynamoicprocessinwhichtwodecisionlevelsmaybedistinguished.Theupperleveldefinesthegoals,identifiesthecriteriaandchoosesthefinal"optimum"solution.Thesecondlevelistheengineeringlevelofatechnicalnature;itdefinesalternativesandpoin…

Multicriteria Analysis of a Capacity Expansion Problem:Damaturu, Northeastern Nigeria as Case Study

Damaturu, the Yobe State Capital is one of the major towns in the semi-arid areas OfNortheastern Nigeria. It lacks adequate water supply. Being a State Capital, rapid improvements in itsinfrastructures including water supply to cope with increased demands are required. Three options forthe expansion of the present water supply system are been considered. These are Groundwater resourceswithin and around the existing system, and surface water schemes from two Dam sites identitied andappraised for this purpose. The Management of the Yobe State Water Board and the State Governmentare faced with the problem of which of these three options to choose. This is a typical capacity expansionproblem within a multicriterion setting in which the choice is to be bassed on economic, environmental,social as well as political considerstions. This paper presents a multicriterion analysis whose result willbe used in forming the basis of an informed decision to be made on why a particular option is to bechosen.