Seeing a paper published a few weeks ago in Nature Communications (more on that below) reminded me of some reading I did last year on WASH and antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and got me thinking about the economics of this. What is AMR? Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) occurs when microorganisms adapt after exposure to antimicrobial drugs (e.g.… Continue reading The economics of antimicrobial resistance and the role of water and sanitation services
Category: costs.
The difference between economic and financial analysis for WASH services
The distinction between economic analysis and financial analysis is not always straightforward. In this post I try to clarify this. Definitions I have previously defined WASH economics as “the study of how people make decisions about the allocation of scarce resources in the delivery and use of WASH services.” See that post for more discussion… Continue reading The difference between economic and financial analysis for WASH services
Recall bias and cost data
I've been working on costing a few programmes recently where the intervention happened between 3-10 years ago. Both used household surveys asking people what they spent (in cash and in kind) towards the original infrastructure output (CapEx), towards regular operational and maintenance (OpEx) and irregular capital maintenance (CapManEx). It's got me thinking about the various… Continue reading Recall bias and cost data
Incremental benefits from increases in sanitation service level
The Indus valley civilisation (c.2,000 BCE) coupled on-plot water supply from wells with the first known sewers. However, it was the Minoans (also c.2,000 BCE) who were the first to have piped water systems – I marvelled at the clay pipes and stone sewers at Knossos on Crete. The Minoans understood that piped water on… Continue reading Incremental benefits from increases in sanitation service level
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