Pure home water in Ghana

This study addresses these broad questions while evaluating the effectiveness of a particular household water treatment: the Kosim filter, a ceramic filter sold by Pure Home Water, a Ghana-based non-profit. This simple product is highly effective at improving water quality and is appropriate for the region, since it removes particulates and pathogens from water without the use of electricity. We will offer individual rural households the opportunity to purchase the filter at randomized prices, uncovering true willingness to pay through our elicitation mechanism. By staggering the sale of the product within villages and mapping social networks carefully, we will provide new evidence on the evolution of demand for health goods. Northern Ghana is a particularly interesting setting for exploring these network questions. There appear to be parallel male and female networks that have few connections between them except within households. Women generally control water procurement, storage and use, while men control family finances. Our research design will allow us to determine how these two networks interact and affect households purchase decisions.

Furthermore, the randomized offer price provides an instrument for unbiased estimation of the filter’s health impact and health externalities among neighbors. The study design addresses important questions in price theory and behavioral economics. Many development practitioners believe that paying some positive amount can cause the household to place greater value on the correct use and maintenance of a product, but the evidence on this is mixed. By randomizing price paid, we will be able to measure the causal effect of price on usage and maintenance.

Lack of access to clean water is one of the most significant threats to health and welfare in the developing world, particularly rural Africa. Forty percent of Africans—and 54% of rural Africans—lack access to improved sources of drinking water. This has serious health consequences: diarrheal disease causes nearly 1.8 million deaths worldwide each year, and is responsible for 17% of deaths of African children under five years of age. Poor water quality also has large impacts on the health of the living, contributing to other debilitating diseases such as malaria, schistosomiasis, trachoma and worms.

While there is a strong consensus on the severity of the problem, there is little robust evidence on the effectiveness of solutions relevant to the rural poor. Piped treated water, which produced substantial health gains in developed countries and some urban areas in developing countries, is not considered feasible in rural areas of developing countries with dispersed populations and weak institutions for maintenance. Community interventions short of piped water, such as spring improvement or communal wells, have not produced strong results. Thus policy-makers and private enterprises whose goal is to provide safe water to rural populations are increasingly interested in point-of-use treatments, such as chlorination and filtration.

This project is conducted in conjunction with Innovations for Poverty Action a non-profit organization with extensive experience in program evaluation, implementation and the dissemination of information about what works and what does not to policymakers, practitioners, investors and donors around the world. The initial pilot study began in early 2009, and the full study will be completed through 2010.