Increasing access to safe water and thereby reducing child mortality

While most countries are committed to increasing access to safe water and thereby reducing child mortality, there is little consensus on how to actually increase access to safe water and sanitation coverage and to improve water service.  Some developing countries have implemented a strategy based on the privatization of water provision companies.  Galiani, Gertler, and Schargrodsky (2005), using the variation in ownership of water provision across time and space generated by the privatization process in Argentina, found that child mortality fell 8 percent in the areas that privatized their water services; and that the effect was largest (26 percent) in the poorest areas.

Galiani, S.,  Gertler, P., and Schargrodsky, E. 2005. Water for Life: The Impact of the Privatization of Water Services on Child Mortality. Journal of Political Economy, 113 (1), 83-120