Hi all,
Many of us active on this forum understand that access to water and sanitation can have significant effects on household incomes: medical expenses can reduced by sustained good health, and productive time can be increased due to less sick days and less time required for water allocation as well as defecation. My paper , expanding upon the presentation I gave at last year's World Water Week in Stockholm, looks more closely at this topic and seeks to ignite deeper conversation and more data collection around these economic factors. Please read, share, and reply!

Best,
Lesley

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Added by moderator:

Income-enabling, Not Consumptive: Association of Household Socio-economic Conditions with Safe Water and Sanitation

Abstract:

Water.org's programme, WaterCredit, uses microfinance to empower the world's poor to access water and sanitation. A major obstacle to scaling up this approach is the general assumption that loans for water and sanitation are too risky because they are consumptive rather than income-generating. This article challenges that argument by highlighting the financial gains people are able to derive to some extent from having water and/or sanitation infrastructure at home. Data that examine the economic implications of the reallocation of time formerly dedicated to water collection and defecation practices are provided from surveys and interviews conducted with WaterCredit borrowers in India.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214241X16300098