Problems with Small Drinking Water Systems in Developing and Developed Countries: How Do They Compare?

Authors

• Kurt Kesteloot, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

First Advisor

Elizabeth Jones

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Committee Members

Lynette Smith, Shannon Bartelt-Hunt, Tian Zhang

Department

Civil Engineering

Date of this Version

4-29-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Citation

A dissertation presented to the faculty of the Graduate College at the University of Nebraska in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy

Major: Civil Engineering

Under the supervision of Professor Elizabeth Jones

Lincoln, Nebraska, May 2026

Comments

Copyright 2026, Kurt Kasteloot. Used by permission

Abstract

This dissertation compares the factors that drive the long-term functionality of small drinking water systems (serving fewer than 10,000 people) in developing and developed country contexts, with a focus on groundwater supplies. Using regression analysis in SAS and complementary fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) for developing countries, the study integrates two datasets: 23 Engineers Without Borders project surveys (90+ variables across 14 countries) and a multi-year National Park Service inspection dataset (approximately 1,561 systems; 7,460 recorded deficiencies, enriched with U.S. Census ZIP-code aggregates). In developing countries, statistically significant predictors of success include government cash contributions (odds ratio [OR] ≈ 67.6), strong community engagement (e.g., water committees and partner capacity), multidisciplinary project teams, routine operation and maintenance (O&M), and contextual factors such as household proximity and access to healthcare. These conditions align with and reinforce fsQCA pathways highlighting governance, participation, and O&M as central to sustainability.

In developed country systems, deficiencies are predominantly moderate in severity and cluster under operation and maintenance, water quality, and backflow and disinfection categories. The backflow and disinfection findings exhibit comparatively higher severity. Housing-related metrics (lower median house value, low to medium housing density), income per household, persons per household, population, and age show robust associations with deficiency presence, severity distribution, and recurrence, with more than 90% of recorded deficiencies occurring in well-based potable systems. These sociodemographic signals are interpreted as place-based indicators of infrastructural and operational context rather than attributes of individuals.

Implications include (1) prioritizing financing mechanisms, governance capacity, and water committee structures for projects in developing regions; and (2) strengthening cross-connection control, disinfection practices, preventive O&M, operator training, and corrective-action loops in developed settings. This is especially true in low-value, low-density service areas. Limitations involve small sample sizes and categorical variables from Engineers Without Borders USA surveys, missing data, sparse high-severity events, and potential multicollinearity; nonetheless, convergent findings across data binning strategies (quartiles and thirds) consistently identify housing value, density, and household size as core drivers of vulnerability. Future work should expand datasets, refine survey instruments toward continuous measures, explore cumulative ordinal models, integrate machine learning, and conduct spatial risk analyses. Overall, the dissertation contributes an evidence-based, comparable factor set and actionable guidance for planning, funding, design, and O&M to improve the reliability and public-health protection of small groundwater systems worldwide.

Recommended Citation

Kesteloot, Kurt, "Problems with Small Drinking Water Systems in Developing and Developed Countries: How Do They Compare?" (2026). Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–. 482.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissunl/482