Providing Safe Water: Evidence from Randomized Evaluations

Ahuja, Amrita; Kremer, Michael; Zwane, Alix Peterson

doi:10.1146/annurev.resource.012809.103919

Cited by 93 publications

(72 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Our WTP estimates indicate that reaching 50% of the target population would require subsidies of up to 89% of retail for the pot filter with its container; the median bid in these low-income communities was 11% of the retail price. These low WTP figures have also been reported in previous research (Ahuja et al, 2010;Amrose et al, 2015) with revealed WTP studies almost always yielding lower numbers than stated WTP (Luoto et al, 2012;Ahuja et al, 2010;Kremer et al, 2009;Orgill et al, 2013). The development of less expensive alternatives is promising, however; we found that a generic disinfectant-coagulant would be as acceptable to consumers as PuR, indicating a potential market for a generic version of this type of HWTS technology.…”

Section: Conclusion and Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

“…The estimation and appropriate targeting of subsidies is a contested topic in the development literature, but many researchers have argued that, without subsidies, universal access to safe drinking water will not be possible (Ahuja et al, 2010;Amrose et al, 2015). We conclude that, for a low-income country looking to improve the health of its citizens through scaling up HWTS, there may be no "low-cost" options to safe drinking water for all.…”

Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

“…The preference for boiling has not been compared to other HWTS preferences in previous research, despite its high global usage relative to other treatment technologies (Rosa and Clasen, 2010;Ahuja et al, 2010;Amrose et al, 2015). We found few journal articles that compared several HWTS products, for either user preferences or WTP (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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User preferences and willingness to pay for safe drinking water: Experimental evidence from rural Tanzania

Burt

Njee

Mbatia

et al. 2017

Social Science & Medicine

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Keywords:Tanzania Water and health Household water treatment and safe storage Point of use Boiling User preferences Willingness to pay a b s t r a c t Almost half of all deaths from drinking microbiologically unsafe water occur in Sub-Saharan Africa. Household water treatment and safe storage (HWTS) systems, when consistently used, can provide safer drinking water and improve health. Social marketing to increase adoption and use of HWTS depends both on the prices of and preferences for these systems. This study included 556 households from rural Tanzania across two low-income districts with low-quality water sources. Over 9 months in 2012 and 2013, we experimentally evaluated consumer preferences for six "low-cost" HWTS options, including boiling, through an ordinal ranking protocol. We estimated consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for these options, using a modified auction. We allowed respondents to pay for the durable HWTS systems with cash, chickens or mobile money; a significant minority chose chickens as payment. Overall, our participants favored boiling, the ceramic pot filter and, where water was turbid, PuR™ (a combined flocculant-disinfectant). The revealed WTP for all products was far below retail prices, indicating that significant scale-up may need significant subsidies. Our work will inform programs and policies aimed at scaling up HWTS to improve the health of resource-constrained communities that must rely on poorquality, and sometimes turbid, drinking water sources.

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Section: Conclusion and Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

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User preferences and willingness to pay for safe drinking water: Experimental evidence from rural Tanzania

Burt

Njee

Mbatia

et al. 2017

Social Science & Medicine

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“…21 Dilute chlorine, branded as WaterGuard, was widely promoted and distributed by the manufacturer in Kenya (Population Services International, Washington, DC), and therefore, it was familiar to the study population and could be considered an intervention that had already been scaled up. Turbidity is not a major concern in this part of Kenya, where most people rely on groundwater or rainwater for drinking; thus, filters were not seen to have a significant advantage over chlorine.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pilot Cluster Randomized Controlled Trials to Evaluate Adoption of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Interventions and Their Combination in Rural Western Kenya

Christensen¹,

Dentz²,

Pickering³

et al. 2015

The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

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Abstract. In preparation for a larger trial, the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Benefits pilot study enrolled 72 villages and 499 subjects in two closely related randomized trials of WASH interventions in rural western Kenya. Intervention households received hardware and promotion for one of the following: water treatment, sanitation and latrine improvements, handwashing with soap, or the combination of all three. Interventions were clustered by village. A follow-up survey was conducted 4 months after intervention delivery to assess uptake. Intervention households were significantly more likely than controls to have chlorinated stored water (36-60 percentage point increases), covers over latrine drop holes (55-75 percentage point increases), less stool visible on latrine floors (16-47 percentage point reductions), and a place for handwashing (71-85 percentage point increases) with soap available (49-66 percentage point increases). The high uptake in all arms shows that combined interventions can achieve high short-term adoption rates if well-designed.

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“…Finally, demand-side factors that impede coverage may arise through lack of knowledge or understanding of the benefits provided by different services. In these cases, informational campaigns can have a significant role in increasing the take-up of essential services (Ahuja, Kremer, & Zwane, 2010).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increasing access to water services: a cost-recoverable pricing model

Chun¹

2014

International Journal of Water Resources Development

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Pricing policies can serve as a low-cost and effective tool for increasing access to water and sanitation services among poor households while allowing the provider to recover costs. An empirical model is applied to contingent-valuation survey data for water services in Cebu, Philippines. Pricing policies that utilizes a low one-time connection fee and differentiates tariffs based on wealth results in a 3 to 9-fold increase in water services access by poor households over the base pricing policy. The results provide evidence that price-discrimination techniques can be important tools toward achieving greater coverage and financial solvency of important services.

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Providing Safe Water: Evidence from Randomized Evaluations

Cited by 93 publications

References 46 publications

User preferences and willingness to pay for safe drinking water: Experimental evidence from rural Tanzania

User preferences and willingness to pay for safe drinking water: Experimental evidence from rural Tanzania

Pilot Cluster Randomized Controlled Trials to Evaluate Adoption of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Interventions and Their Combination in Rural Western Kenya

Increasing access to water services: a cost-recoverable pricing model

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