Why does piped water not reduce diarrhea for children? Evidence from urban Yemen

Tobias Lechtenfeld
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Tobias Lechtenfeld: Georg-August-University Göttingen

No 119, Courant Research Centre: Poverty, Equity and Growth - Discussion Papers from Courant Research Centre PEG

Abstract: This paper investigates why household connections to piped water supply can increase diarrheal diseases among under-5-year-old children. Using a unique mix of household data, microbiological test results and spatial information from urban Yemen it is possible to distinguish the adverse impacts of malfunctioning water pipes from unhygienic household behavior on water pollution and health outcomes. The analysis consists of three parts: First, exogenous variation of pipe construction is used to quantify the health impact of access to piped water, which is found to increase the risk of child diarrhea by 4.6 percentage points. Second, by exploiting the spatial correlation of pollution among households connected to the same water pipe, it is shown that broken pipes and interruptions of water supply are responsible for most of the water pollution. Third, unhygienic water storage and handling at household level additionally increases water pollution. These results show for the first time that water rationing can jeopardize the intended health benefits of access to clean drinking water. Importantly, these results apply to most urban areas in Africa and the Middle East where water resources are limited and water supply is frequently interrupted.

Keywords: Water and Sanitation; Diarrhea; Child Health; Impact Evaluation; Yemen (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I38 O12 O16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-08-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ara and nep-env
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:got:gotcrc:119

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