Economic assessments of small-scale drinking-water interventions in pursuit of MDG target 7C

John Cameron; Paul Jagals; Paul R. Hunter; Steve Pedley; Katherine Pond

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2011.09.054

Economic assessments of small-scale drinking-water interventions in pursuit of MDG target 7C

John Cameron, Paul Jagals, Paul R. Hunter, Steve Pedley, Katherine Pond^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper uses an applied rural case study of a safer water intervention in South Africa to illustrate how three levels of economic assessment can be used to understand the impact of the intervention on people's well-being. It is set in the context of Millennium Development Goal 7 which sets a target (7C) for safe drinking-water provision and the challenges of reaching people in remote rural areas with relatively small-scale schemes. The assessment moves from cost efficiency to cost effectiveness to a full social cost-benefit analysis (SCBA) with an associated sensitivity test. In addition to demonstrating techniques of analysis, the paper brings out many of the challenges in understanding how safer drinking-water impacts on people's livelihoods. The SCBA shows the case study intervention is justified economically, though the sensitivity test suggests 'downside' vulnerability.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	8-15
Number of pages	8
Journal	Science of the Total Environment, The
Volume	410-411
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2011.09.054
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2011
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
One of us (M.E. Gusakov) is grateful to D.G. Yakovlev and A.D. Kaminker for helpful discussions and attention to the work. T his study was supported in part by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project nos. 02-02-17668 and 00-07-90183).

Keywords

Economic assessment
Rural water supplies
Safer drinking-water
Social cost-benefit analysis
South Africa

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.scitotenv.2011.09.054

Cite this

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title = "Economic assessments of small-scale drinking-water interventions in pursuit of MDG target 7C",

abstract = "This paper uses an applied rural case study of a safer water intervention in South Africa to illustrate how three levels of economic assessment can be used to understand the impact of the intervention on people's well-being. It is set in the context of Millennium Development Goal 7 which sets a target (7C) for safe drinking-water provision and the challenges of reaching people in remote rural areas with relatively small-scale schemes. The assessment moves from cost efficiency to cost effectiveness to a full social cost-benefit analysis (SCBA) with an associated sensitivity test. In addition to demonstrating techniques of analysis, the paper brings out many of the challenges in understanding how safer drinking-water impacts on people's livelihoods. The SCBA shows the case study intervention is justified economically, though the sensitivity test suggests 'downside' vulnerability.",

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AU - Hunter, Paul R.

AU - Pedley, Steve

AU - Pond, Katherine

N1 - Funding Information: One of us (M.E. Gusakov) is grateful to D.G. Yakovlev and A.D. Kaminker for helpful discussions and attention to the work. T his study was supported in part by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project nos. 02-02-17668 and 00-07-90183).

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N2 - This paper uses an applied rural case study of a safer water intervention in South Africa to illustrate how three levels of economic assessment can be used to understand the impact of the intervention on people's well-being. It is set in the context of Millennium Development Goal 7 which sets a target (7C) for safe drinking-water provision and the challenges of reaching people in remote rural areas with relatively small-scale schemes. The assessment moves from cost efficiency to cost effectiveness to a full social cost-benefit analysis (SCBA) with an associated sensitivity test. In addition to demonstrating techniques of analysis, the paper brings out many of the challenges in understanding how safer drinking-water impacts on people's livelihoods. The SCBA shows the case study intervention is justified economically, though the sensitivity test suggests 'downside' vulnerability.

AB - This paper uses an applied rural case study of a safer water intervention in South Africa to illustrate how three levels of economic assessment can be used to understand the impact of the intervention on people's well-being. It is set in the context of Millennium Development Goal 7 which sets a target (7C) for safe drinking-water provision and the challenges of reaching people in remote rural areas with relatively small-scale schemes. The assessment moves from cost efficiency to cost effectiveness to a full social cost-benefit analysis (SCBA) with an associated sensitivity test. In addition to demonstrating techniques of analysis, the paper brings out many of the challenges in understanding how safer drinking-water impacts on people's livelihoods. The SCBA shows the case study intervention is justified economically, though the sensitivity test suggests 'downside' vulnerability.

KW - Economic assessment

KW - Rural water supplies

KW - Safer drinking-water

KW - Social cost-benefit analysis

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SN - 0048-9697

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JO - Science of the Total Environment, The

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ER -

Economic assessments of small-scale drinking-water interventions in pursuit of MDG target 7C

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

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