  Tanker-based distribution systems have been prevalent in developing countries
to supply clean and pure water in different regions. To efficiently operate
such tanker service systems, a large fleet of tanker trucks are required to
transport water among several water sources, water treatment plants and
consumers spanning across the regions. This requires tighter coordination
between water suppliers, treatment plant operations, and user groups to use
available water resources in a sustainable manner, along with the assurance of
water quality and timely delivery. This paper proposes a novel formulation to
assist decision-making for optimizing tanker-based water distribution systems
and treatment operations, with an overall objective of minimizing the total
operating cost such that all of the constraints related to the water demand,
supply operations, and environmental and social aspects are honored while
supplying water to a maximum number of users. The problem is formulated and
solved as a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) optimization framework and
captures all of the nuances related to (i) water availability limitations and
quality constraints from different sources, (ii) maintaining water quality as
it transports via tankers, (iii) water demands for various end-use purposes,
and (iv) transportation across a water supply chain. The proposed novel
framework is applied to a realistic urban model to find the optimal tanker
delivery schedule, ensuring appropriate treatment and timely delivery of water.
The results of the case study conducted on a representative-scale problem also
elucidate several aspects of treatment plant operation and consumer demand
fulfillment for the efficient planning and management of tanker-based water
distribution systems.
