McKinsey Hard Decision Analysis

Water Provision Scheme

ProHub Comment

This is a complex public sector decision analysis case that combines quantitative financial modeling (NPV comparison) with qualitative strategic considerations. The case tests the candidate's ability to recognize when quantitative analysis alone is insufficient and to think holistically about implementation challenges in resource-constrained developing economies.

Estimated Time 15 minutes
Difficulty Hard
Source Duke
50 / 100

As of March 2021, the Education Ministry (EM) in India believes that more than 42,000 government schools across the country don’t have drinking water facilities and have no provision of water. Consumption of dirty water is detrimental to kids’ health; it can lead to many diseases and cause the students to drop out of school.

Each school has typically 100 students and each student typically consumes 200L yearly

The client wants your help to design a roadmap to serve the needs of the 42,000 schools and ensure that each school has potable drinking water by 2030.

Clarifying Information

  1. Objective: The EM wants to maximize enrollment of students by providing water in the most feasible way.
  2. Model: Due to India being a developing country, funding from the government is incredibly limited.
  3. Geography: All schools are located in rural India.