Every one's a winner? : economic valuation of water projects : discussion paper

Through better access to safe water and sanitation a benefit of an estimated 5.6 billion working days and 443 million school days can be achieved, through time saving and reduced sickness. In particular women and girls will benefit through increased take-up of income generating opportunities and education. WaterAid is developing methodologies for valuing these and other benefits, which can be equally important, such as improvement to self-esteem, confidence and security. Valuations can be made at national economy level, but household based calculations give a more immediate impression of poverty reduction benefits for the poorest. Attribution of the wider benefits of water projects is not straightforward. Negative impacts may also occur such as losses of water-vending work or opportunities to socialize while water hauling.

The methodologies are intended primarily for field use in valuing the impacts of individual water and sanitation projects. The range of these impacts are described, methodologies for valuing them are proposed, issues such as double counting and discounting which need to be addressed are discussed. The use of these methodologies by two of WaterAid’s Country Programmes in India and Tanzania, are reported. Preliminary calculations show that between $2 and S52 are returned for every $1 invested. The range reflects both variations in the nature of projects and their impacts and also the constraints of using pre-existing data. Results remain positive under sensitivity analysis – especially of wage rates applying to time-saved.