Poor water quality and sanitation are leading causes of mortality and disease in developing countries. However, interventions providing toilets in rural areas have not substantially improved health, likely because of incomplete coverage and low usage. This paper estimates the impact of an...

High levels of investment in relation to cash flows, combined with high dividend payouts, have caused UK water companies persistently to borrow to meet their cash outflows. This behaviour is not adequately explained by mainstream theories of dividends. The intensive regulatory environment has...

We use laboratory experiments to test three different water market institutions designed to incorporate instream flow values into the allocation. The institutions are (1) a baseline with fixed minimum flow constraints, (2) an environmental agent contributing to the cost of providing instream...

Nearly 40% of England's privately built waterworks were municipalised in the late 19th century. We examine how this affected public health by pairing annual mortality data for over 600 registration districts, spanning 1869 to 1910, with detailed waterworks information. Identification is aided by...

This paper formulates and estimates a household-level, billing-cycle water demand model under increasing block prices that accounts for the impact of monthly weather variation, the amount of vegetation on the household's property, and customer-level heterogeneity in demand due to household...

The paper provides a first systematic, comprehensive benchmarking of South Africa's infrastructure performance in four major sectors--electricity, water and sanitation, information and communication technology, and transportation--against the relevant group of comparator countries using a new...

No silver bullet exists to improve cost recovery or water use efficiency of irrigation systems. However, many countries provide examples of successful reforms that policymakers and system managers can draw upon for inspiration and ideas. A successful system will have the appropriate mix of...

The PPI (Private Participation in Infrastructure) Project Database covers private participation in infrastructure in developing countries. The database records details of all projects owned or managed by private companies in 1984-97 in the water, energy, transport, and telecommunications...

This report presents the main results from cost models that were developed as an input to the High Powered Expert Committee on Urban Development in order to estimate the investment, operations, and maintenance requirements for urban water, sanitation and municipal solid waste in India. The cost...

The sector review includes seven chapters and one annex. This first chapter is an overview of agriculture, irrigation and the purpose and content of this report. The second chapter provides a review of the Bank s own strategy and priorities for irrigation and drainage within its portfolio of...