While South Asia's average gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the past decade was only sl... more While South Asia's average gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the past decade was only slightly lower than in East Asia and the Pacific, the region significantly lags behind in terms of infrastructure access. In some cases, South Asia's access levels are more similar to sub-Saharan Africa, although considerable heterogeneity exists across the South Asia region (SAR) some provinces, infrastructure types, and countries have much higher access levels than others. If SAR can't close its United States (U.S.) $1.7 trillion to U.S. $2.5 trillion infrastructure gap, its growth performance is likely to stall. This note examines the type and magnitude of the infrastructure gap, and also looks at inequality of access to infrastructure across physical, poverty, and income spaces. Keeping in mind five key principles, there are several options for policy makers to consider for closing the infrastructure gap while also improving the equality of access.
Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development, 2020
This paper provides new evidence on the recent performance of piped water consumption subsidies i... more This paper provides new evidence on the recent performance of piped water consumption subsidies in terms of pro-poor targeting for 10 low- and middle-income countries around the world. Our results suggest that in these countries, existing tariff structures fall well short of recovering the costs of service provision, and that, moreover, the resulting subsidies largely fail to achieve the goal of improving the accessibility and affordability of piped water among the poor. Instead, the majority of subsidies in all 10 countries are captured by the richest households. On average, across the 10 low- and middle-income countries examined, 56% of subsidies end up in the pockets of the richest 20%, but only 6% of subsidies find their way to the poorest 20%. This is predominantly due to the most vulnerable segments of the population facing challenges in access and connection to piped water services. Shortcomings in the design of the subsidy, conditional on poor households being connected, exi...
One common method for assessing the affordability of water supply, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH)... more One common method for assessing the affordability of water supply, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services is to compare a household’s reported WASH expenditure, as a proportion of total household ...
The water supply and sanitation sector remains heavily subsidized around the world. Yet, the acco... more The water supply and sanitation sector remains heavily subsidized around the world. Yet, the accounting of water supply and sanitation subsidies globally has proved challenging due to utility-level data limitations and their often implicit nature. This paper develops a methodology to estimate water supply and sanitation subsidies that is adaptable to data scarce environments, while accounting for differences among service providers such as population served (to account for economies of scale), coverage of water and sanitation services individually, and their level of operational efficiency in terms of water losses and staffing. This methodology is based on Chile’s empresa modelo (model firm) approach to cost-reflective tariff estimation and uses utility-level data from the World Bank's International Benchmarking Network for Water and Sanitation Utilities database. The results suggest that the cost of subsidies associated with the operations, maintenance, and major repair and replacement of existing water supply and sanitation infrastructure in much of the world (excluding, notably, China and India) is an estimated $289 billion to $353 billion per year, or 0.46 to 0.56 percent of the countries' combined gross domestic product. This figure rises, shockingly, to 1.59 to 1.95 percent if only low- and middle-income economies are considered, an amount largely due to the capital subsidies captured in the estimation. Subsidies of operating costs account for approximately 22 percent of the total subsidy amount in the full sample and for low-income economies separately. Annual subsidy amounts by region range from 0.05 to 2.40 percent of gross domestic product, and low-income economies are generally at the high end of this range. The estimations do not include capital expenditure for infrastructure expansion -- which tends to be fully subsidized -- or environmental costs. Therefore, the actual global magnitude of networked water supply and sanitation subsidies is much greater than the estimation.
This study reports the findings of a large-scale, multiple-arm, cluster-randomized control study ... more This study reports the findings of a large-scale, multiple-arm, cluster-randomized control study carried out in rural Punjab, India, to assess the impact of a flagship sanitation program of the Government of India. The program, the Clean India Mission for Villages, was implemented between October 2014 and October 2019 and aimed to encourage the construction of toilets, eliminate the practice of open defecation, and improve the awareness and practice of good hygiene across rural India. It utilized a combination of behavioral change campaigns, centered on the community-led total sanitation approach, and financial incentives for eligible households. The study also evaluates the incremental effects of intensive hygiene awareness campaigns in selected schools and follow-up initiatives in selected communities. The study finds that the coverage of ?safely managed? toilets among households without toilets increased by 6.8?10.4 percentage points across various intervention arms, compared wit...
While South Asia's average gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the past decade was only sl... more While South Asia's average gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the past decade was only slightly lower than in East Asia and the Pacific, the region significantly lags behind in terms of infrastructure access. In some cases, South Asia's access levels are more similar to sub-Saharan Africa, although considerable heterogeneity exists across the South Asia region (SAR) some provinces, infrastructure types, and countries have much higher access levels than others. If SAR can't close its United States (U.S.) $1.7 trillion to U.S. $2.5 trillion infrastructure gap, its growth performance is likely to stall. This note examines the type and magnitude of the infrastructure gap, and also looks at inequality of access to infrastructure across physical, poverty, and income spaces. Keeping in mind five key principles, there are several options for policy makers to consider for closing the infrastructure gap while also improving the equality of access.
Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development, 2020
This paper provides new evidence on the recent performance of piped water consumption subsidies i... more This paper provides new evidence on the recent performance of piped water consumption subsidies in terms of pro-poor targeting for 10 low- and middle-income countries around the world. Our results suggest that in these countries, existing tariff structures fall well short of recovering the costs of service provision, and that, moreover, the resulting subsidies largely fail to achieve the goal of improving the accessibility and affordability of piped water among the poor. Instead, the majority of subsidies in all 10 countries are captured by the richest households. On average, across the 10 low- and middle-income countries examined, 56% of subsidies end up in the pockets of the richest 20%, but only 6% of subsidies find their way to the poorest 20%. This is predominantly due to the most vulnerable segments of the population facing challenges in access and connection to piped water services. Shortcomings in the design of the subsidy, conditional on poor households being connected, exi...
One common method for assessing the affordability of water supply, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH)... more One common method for assessing the affordability of water supply, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services is to compare a household’s reported WASH expenditure, as a proportion of total household ...
The water supply and sanitation sector remains heavily subsidized around the world. Yet, the acco... more The water supply and sanitation sector remains heavily subsidized around the world. Yet, the accounting of water supply and sanitation subsidies globally has proved challenging due to utility-level data limitations and their often implicit nature. This paper develops a methodology to estimate water supply and sanitation subsidies that is adaptable to data scarce environments, while accounting for differences among service providers such as population served (to account for economies of scale), coverage of water and sanitation services individually, and their level of operational efficiency in terms of water losses and staffing. This methodology is based on Chile’s empresa modelo (model firm) approach to cost-reflective tariff estimation and uses utility-level data from the World Bank's International Benchmarking Network for Water and Sanitation Utilities database. The results suggest that the cost of subsidies associated with the operations, maintenance, and major repair and replacement of existing water supply and sanitation infrastructure in much of the world (excluding, notably, China and India) is an estimated $289 billion to $353 billion per year, or 0.46 to 0.56 percent of the countries' combined gross domestic product. This figure rises, shockingly, to 1.59 to 1.95 percent if only low- and middle-income economies are considered, an amount largely due to the capital subsidies captured in the estimation. Subsidies of operating costs account for approximately 22 percent of the total subsidy amount in the full sample and for low-income economies separately. Annual subsidy amounts by region range from 0.05 to 2.40 percent of gross domestic product, and low-income economies are generally at the high end of this range. The estimations do not include capital expenditure for infrastructure expansion -- which tends to be fully subsidized -- or environmental costs. Therefore, the actual global magnitude of networked water supply and sanitation subsidies is much greater than the estimation.
This study reports the findings of a large-scale, multiple-arm, cluster-randomized control study ... more This study reports the findings of a large-scale, multiple-arm, cluster-randomized control study carried out in rural Punjab, India, to assess the impact of a flagship sanitation program of the Government of India. The program, the Clean India Mission for Villages, was implemented between October 2014 and October 2019 and aimed to encourage the construction of toilets, eliminate the practice of open defecation, and improve the awareness and practice of good hygiene across rural India. It utilized a combination of behavioral change campaigns, centered on the community-led total sanitation approach, and financial incentives for eligible households. The study also evaluates the incremental effects of intensive hygiene awareness campaigns in selected schools and follow-up initiatives in selected communities. The study finds that the coverage of ?safely managed? toilets among households without toilets increased by 6.8?10.4 percentage points across various intervention arms, compared wit...
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