Rainfall patterns influence water usage and revenue from user payments in rural Africa. The authors explore these dynamics by examining monthly rainfall against 4,888 records of rural piped water revenue in Ghana, Rwanda, and Uganda and quantifying revenue changes over 635 transitions between dry and wet seasons.
Institutions
Incentivizing clean water collection during rainfall to reduce disease in rural sub-Saharan Africa with weather dependent pricing
This article proposes a new pricing mechanism for ‘water ATMs’, made possible with pre-payment and remote sensing, where prices adjust during rainy seasons to incentivise the continued use of clean water sources. The authors estimate cost per capita and cost per disability-adjusted life year averted, resulting in values which compare favourably with other water quality interventions.
Piped water revenue and investment strategies in rural Africa
This article examines how water service delivery approaches impact revenue generated by user payments, and how infrastructure investment strategies can promote revenue and equity goals for rural piped water services.
Improving water and hand-washing services in rural health care facilities in Kitui County, Kenya
This brief presents policy recommendations for improving water and hand-washing services in rural health care facilities through a professional service delivery model. Annualised costs to provide safe and reliable water and soap services are estimated from actual cost data, providing a basis for County-level budgets and investment planning.
Investing in professionalized maintenance to increase social and economic returns from drinking water infrastructure in rural Kenya
This policy brief is based on 10 years of research in Kitui County, Kenya, supported by the REACH programme, the USAID Sustainable WASH Systems Learning Partnership, UNICEF, ESRC and UKAID. It finds the investment case for professionalized maintenance of drinking water infrastructure becomes compelling when factoring in wider social and economic returns.
Legal and policy change to promote sustainable WASH services in Kitui County, Kenya
This report outlines water policy development in Kitui County, Kenya, over the past 10 years. The key contributions of the Kitui Water Bill and Policy are detailed, as well as three core recommendations to continue moving towards sustainable WASH services.
Global prospects to deliver safe drinking water services for 100 million rural people by 2030
This report documents a global diagnostic survey to evaluate the status and prospects of rural water service providers from 68 countries.
Policy reform to deliver safely managed drinking water services for schools in rural Bangladesh
This report draws on research from 150 primary and secondary schools in Chandpur district to analyse the status of drinking water services, in terms of access, quality, quantity, functionality, and costs.
Individual choices and universal rights for drinking water in rural Africa
This paper seeks to understand which attributes of water services rural people value. The authors modelled more than 11,000 choice observations in rural Kenya by attributes of drinking water quality, price, reliability, and proximity.
Report on findings from the Awash River basin
This report provides an update on REACH’s work in the Awash Basin up to November 2020, and introduces our programme of research from 2020-2024.
