Rural Drinking Water Program and Childhood Health

Li Li ()
Additional contact information
Li Li: East China Normal University

Chapter Chapter 2 in The Impacts of Water Reforms in Rural and Urban China, 2025, pp 13-72 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract We study the effect of in utero exposure to treated tap water on childhood health in rural China, where boiling water to inactivate disease-causing microorganisms before drinking is common. We exploit the gradual rollout of a rural drinking water program that supplies treated tap water to households. Besides microorganisms, the treatment removes chemical pollutants. We find that exposure to treated tap water in utero increases height at ages 1–11 by 0.3 standard deviations. We also document improvements in other health outcomes at different stages of childhood, as well as a reduction in the incidence of non-waterborne digestive diseases. Improving health by age one and inducing more health investments from parents are two possible channels. Results highlight the importance of removing chemical pollutants from drinking water to protect fetuses from environmental insults.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-981-96-6902-8_2

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9789819669028

DOI: 10.1007/978-981-96-6902-8_2

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().