Abstract:
Social returns from investing in water supply, sanitation and
hygiene education (WATSANGENE) have been estimated from the
UNICEF model of water supply, sanitation and hygiene after modifying
it using Sen’s commodities and capabilities approach. The various
characteristics of the commodity, WATSANGENE, affect significantly
the functioning levels of people with respect to poverty, health, longevity,
education and quality of environment. Among them, education,
longevity and quality of environment have not been evaluated because
of the high degree of subjectivity in their measurement leading to wide
margin of errors. Hence, only two of them - poverty and health- have
been taken up for valuation by case study method and by “with” and
“without” project approach. For the case study, two villages from the
coastal belt of Kerala inhabited mainly by fishing community were
selected. The study clearly shows that the social benefits are
underestimated if the travel time is valued by shadow wage rate instead
of by the value of energy expended. For example, the value of time
saved “with the project” is only 35 % of the value of energy expended
for fetching drinking water from distant sources. In the case of sanitation,
it is only 25 % of the value of energy expended. The averted annual
public expenditure per household resulting from the elimination of
water borne and sanitation related illness with the project is Rs.682.
The private annual expenditure per household for treating illness is
Rs.510. The cost of providing water supply, sanitation and hygiene per
household is Rs. 12,086. The ratio of benefit (present value of the
recurring expenditure) to cost is 3.6 in the case of shadow pricing of
travel time and 9 in the case of energy expenditure method. This result
supports strongly that capabilities approach should be used for the
valuation of benefits from water supply, sanitation and hygiene
education. The study shows that provision of WATSANGENE in the
coastal belt qualifies even under commercial borrowing.
