This study explores the interaction between the quality of public services, the implementation of user fees, and the resulting potential for exclusion, that can lead to negative externalities. Our theoretical framework takes account of the possible externalities that result from excluded users...

The social impact of sanitation is multifaceted. It has repercussions for health, education, and the local environment, as well as overall human development and economic growth. Unsafe sanitation poses environmental and health risks. In light of the health hazards, the Government of India has...

Based on the problems that arise because of climate change, such as floods, fires, glacial decline, and avalanches, a study was proposed to build knowledge and skills in the four civil engineering courses of the Minuto de Dios-UNIMINUTO University Corporation, in Zipaquirá, during one semester....

Understanding the specific factors associated with cholera outbreaks is an integral part of designing better approaches to mitigate their impact. This paper uses georeferenced case data from the cholera epidemic that occurred in Harare, Zimbabwe, from September 2018 to January 2019. The paper...

Developing countries have increased sanitation investment to reduce diarrheal diseases. However, the direct health benefits of latrine construction can be offset by water pollution externalities due to poor treatment of fecal sludge. I estimate these negative externalities of a sanitation policy...

Climate-informed projects aimed at boosting water utilities' performance are likely to succeed in achieving intended results by investing in energy efficiency, nonrevenue water (NRW) reduction, climate resilience, and demand-side water use efficiency. Extending water supply and sanitation (WSS)...

Basic sanitation services are essential for human development, promoting health and inhibiting the spread of waterborne diseases. The availability of information on water and sanitation services at the local level supports the formulation, implementation and improvement of public policies aimed...

We estimate the impacts of two interventions implemented as field experiments in informal settlements by Nairobi’s water and sanitation utility to improve revenue collection efficiency and last mile connection loan repayment: (i) face-to-face engagement between utility staff and customers to...

This paper analyses the marriage decisions of men and women, focusing on the added attractiveness of sanitation within the living arrangement, in rural India. We exploit district and time variation from the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) which increased sanitation by 6.6 percent among...

This paper provides novel evidence on the trade-off between public service delivery and free riding in low- and middle-income countries. We implement a field experiment in the slums of two major Indian cities, where inadequate access to sanitation restricts residents to either free ride, by...

Brazil has a pressing need for better water supply and sanitation services (WSS), but in recent years public investment in the sector has been declining both in real terms and as a proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) and is often spent behind schedule and inefficiently. WSS budgets are...

The sustainable development goal for water and sanitation - to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all is a lofty one. Worldwide, 2.4 billion people remain without access to improved sanitation, and nearly 0.7 billion remain without access to improved...

Inadequate water utility services in the low-income areas (LIAs) of Kenya remains the greatest water sector challenge for the coming decades, especially with a fast-growing low-income population. Land tenure issues, vandalism, unlicensed water service providers, irregular payment of fees, and...

Remuneration-post-verification subsidies and microcredit have been postulated as potential solutions to imperfect capital markets and commitment problems that impede lumpy human capital investments, but little is known about the merit of combining these financing mechanisms. We draw on a cluster...

While there is significant awareness of the importance of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) inequalities, measurement continues to present a challenge. Sustainable Development Goal 6 includes universal targets 6.1 and 6.2, aimed at providing universal access to safe drinking water and...

Empirical studies on the effectiveness of aid to the water, sanitation, and hygiene sector (WASH aid) have focused primarily on access to these services as the benchmark for evaluating the effectiveness of aid in this sector. Given the importance of WASH services for public health outcomes, the...

Privatization of a public good (the management of sewage treatment centers in Dakar, Senegal) leads to an increase in the productivity of downstream sewage dumping companies and a decrease in downstream prices of the services they provide to households. We use the universe of legal dumps of...

This paper compares water and sanitation services in municipalities that entered into a concession arrangement with a private operator versus those in a comparable control group of municipalities that continued with a public operator, and we explore five variables of interest: (i) water coverage;...

Poor household water supply and sanitation can affect maternal and newborn health outcomes through several pathways, including the quality of drinking water consumed by pregnant woman and exposure to harmful fecal pathogens in the environment due to poor quality sanitation. Using data on 14,098...

Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services are examined from the Political Economy Analysis (PEA) perspective in Rwanda. Through a participatory qualitative approach, the findings show that water and sanitation services have been relatively low on the political agenda in Rwanda. There is a...

We estimate the impacts of two interventions implemented as field experimentsin informal settlements by Nairobi’s water and sanitation utility to improverevenue collection efficiency and last mile connection loan repayment: (i)face-to-face engagement between utility staff and customers to...

The reforms to the sanitation legal regime in Brazil in 2020 start from a diagnosis that the sector is now dominated by state-owned companies, considered inefficient and without investment capacity; has low participation of private providers and capital; and, it does not provide legal certainty...

In 2010 the United Nations General Assembly recognized the human right to water and sanitation in what is seen as a historical vote by water activists. Implementation of the right to water is imperative to achieve sustainable development. In 2011 the regulation for a European Citizens’...

The lack of quality guarantee of drinking water produced then the community should be protected from the risk of water-borne diseases due to consumption of drinking water comes from refill drinking water depot that does not meet quality standards and sanitation hygiene requirements. The study...

Protracted crises in urban contexts of the Middle East and North Africa region present a growing challenge for water supply and sanitation (WSS) service providers and, in turn, the governments and international organizations that support them. The protracted nature of crisis in countries...

Protracted crises in urban contexts of the Middle East and North Africa region present a growing challenge for water supply and sanitation (WSS) service providers and, in turn, the governments and international organizations that support them. The protracted nature of crisis in countries...

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), has been declared as a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). As the disease is highly infectious, the Global South countries are in a vulnerable situation with high...

This paper investigates whether high borrowing costs deterred investment in sanitation infrastructure in late nineteenth-century Britain. Town councils had to borrow to fund investment, with considerable variation in interest rates across towns and over time. Panel regressions, using annual data...

We analyse the marriage decisions of men and women in rural India, focusing on the added attractiveness of sanitation within the marital living arrangement. We demonstrate that the Government’s Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) changed marriage market outcomes for both men and women. To...

We implement a mixed method approach that combines a randomized controlled trial and qualitative data collection to assess whether, and if so how, behavioural change can be sustained. We do so in the context of Pakistan’s national sanitation strategy to combat open defecation, Community-Led...

While the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic reinforced the critical role that water supply and sanitation (WSS) plays in preventing its spread, it affected the financial stability of service providers in the industry. In response to demands from the client countries, the World Bank carried...

This policy note outlines key challenges and identifies specific recommendations for improved, inclusive, and sustainable development of Ukraine's water supply and sanitation (WSS) sector, which is important for the health and well-being of the country's people, the economy, and the environment....

Decentralisation promises efficiency gain and improved access to public goods and services, especially at the local level. Under decentralised governance arrangement, regional and environmental peculiarities are given prominent consideration in delivering public goods and services. Given the...