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Water hauling and girls'school attendance : some new evidence from Ghana

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  • Nauges, Celine
  • Strand, Jon

Abstract

In large parts of the world, a lack of home tap water burdens households as the water must be brought to the house from outside, at great expense in terms of effort and time. This paper studies how such costs affect girls'schooling in Ghana, with an analysis based on four rounds of the Demographic and Health Surveys. Using Global Positioning System coordinates, it builds an artificial panel of clusters, identifying the closest neighbors within each round. The results indicate a significant negative relation between girls'school attendance and water hauling activity, as a halving of water fetching time increases girls'school attendance by 2.4 percentage points on average, with stronger impacts in rural communities. The results seem to be the first definitive documentation of such a relationship in Africa. They document some of the multiple and wide population benefits of increased tap water access, in Africa and elsewhere.

Suggested Citation

  • Nauges, Celine & Strand, Jon, 2013. "Water hauling and girls'school attendance : some new evidence from Ghana," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6443, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6443
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    Cited by:

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    2. Erica W. Ho & Sophia Strohmeier-Breuning & Madeleine Rossanese & Dana Charron & David Pennise & Jay P. Graham, 2021. "Diverse Health, Gender and Economic Impacts from Domestic Transport of Water and Solid Fuel: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-25, October.
    3. DJEMAI, Elodie, 2018. "Roads and the spread of HIV in Africa," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 118-141.
    4. Fernando Arbués & María A. García-Valiñas & Inmaculada Villanúa, 2020. "Making decisions on industrial water sources: the case of Zaragoza, Spain," Post-Print hal-03191503, HAL.
    5. Gimelli, Francesco M. & Bos, Joannette J. & Rogers, Briony C., 2018. "Fostering equity and wellbeing through water: A reinterpretation of the goal of securing access," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 1-9.
    6. Yasuharu Shimamura & Satoshi Shimizutani & Shimpei Taguchi & Hiroyuki Yamada, 2020. "The Impact of Improved Access to Safe Water on Childhood Health, Schooling and Time Allocation in Rural Zambia," Keio-IES Discussion Paper Series 2020-022, Institute for Economics Studies, Keio University.
    7. Aggarwal, Khushboo & Barua, Rashmi & Vidal-Fernandez, Marian, 2024. "Still Waters Run Deep: Groundwater Contamination and Education Outcomes in India," IZA Discussion Papers 16863, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Steve Muchiri & Sun‐Ki Choi, 2021. "Evaluating the significance of cash transfers on household consumption," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 33(4), pages 662-673, December.
    9. Margaret Chitiga-Mabugu & Martin Henseler & Helene Maisonnave & Ramos Mabugu, 2023. "Climate Change and Women - Impacts and Adaptation," Post-Print hal-04072199, HAL.
    10. O’Brien, James & Do, Phoebe & Edelson, Micaela, 2021. "The effects of fuelwood on children’s schooling in rural Vietnam," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    11. Anne Briand & Author-Name: Noukignon Koné, 2018. "Poverty eradication by improving waste collection: an African case study," Working Papers 20180003, UMR Développement et Sociétés, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement.
    12. Andante Hadi Pandyaswargo & Mengyi Ruan & Eiei Htwe & Motoshi Hiratsuka & Alan Dwi Wibowo & Yuji Nagai & Hiroshi Onoda, 2020. "Estimating the Energy Demand and Growth in Off-Grid Villages: Case Studies from Myanmar, Indonesia, and Laos," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-22, October.
    13. Satoru Komatsu & Yuki Yamamoto & Yutaka Ito & Shinji Kaneko & Ram Prasad Dhital, 2020. "Water for life: ceaseless routine efforts for collecting drinking water in remote mountainous villages of Nepal," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(8), pages 7909-7925, December.
    14. Elodie Djemai, 2017. "Roads and the Spread of AIDS in Africa," Working Papers DT/2017/16, DIAL (Développement, Institutions et Mondialisation).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Town Water Supply and Sanitation; Water and Industry; Water Supply and Sanitation Governance and Institutions; Water Conservation; Water Use;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa
    • Q25 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Water

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