Financing Municipal Water and Sanitation Services in Nairobi’s Informal Settlements

Aidan Coville; Sebastian Galiani; Paul Gertler; Susumu Yoshida

doi:10.3386/w27569

Financing Municipal Water and Sanitation Services in Nairobi’s Informal Settlements

Aidan Coville, Sebastian Galiani, Paul Gertler & Susumu Yoshida

Working Paper 27569

DOI 10.3386/w27569

Issue Date July 2020

We estimate the impacts of two interventions implemented as field experiments in informal settlements by Nairobi’s water and sanitation utility to improve revenue collection efficiency and last mile connection loan repayment: (i) face-to-face engagement between utility staff and customers to encourage payment and (ii) contract enforcement for service disconnection due to nonpayment in the form of transparent and credible disconnection notices. While we find no effect of the engagement, we find large effects of enforcement on payment. We also find no effect on access to water, perceptions of utility fairness or quality of service delivery, on the relationships between tenants and property owners, or on tenant mental well-being nine months after the intervention. To counterbalance the increase in payments, property owners increased rental income by renting out additional space. Taken together these results suggest that transparent contract enforcement was effective at improving revenue collection efficiency without incurring large social or political costs.

The authors are grateful to the World Bank’s Strategic Impact Evaluation Fund (SIEF), Development Impact Evaluation Department (DIME), J-PAL/MIT Urban Services Initiative and the International Growth Center for financial support. The authors have benefited from comments by Edward Glaeser, Marco Gonzales, Kelsey Jack, Bryce Millett Steinberg, Guadalupe Bedoya, Gustavo Saltiel, Catherine Signe Tovey, Josses Mugabi, George Joseph, Ruth Kennedy-Walker, Jeffrey Mosenkis, Laura Burke, Douglas MacKay, Chris Prottas, Mitsunori Motohashi, Martin Gambrill, Arianna Legovini, Keziah Muthembwa, Camille Nuamah and participants in the 2019 Cities and Development conference, the 2020 NBER Summer Institute Urban Economics Conference, and from a seminar at NYU in Abu Dubai. The study would not have been possible without the continued efforts and long-term collaboration with the Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company staff including Nahashon Muguna, Jackson Munuve, Kagiri Gicheha, Jason Mwangi, Beldina Owade, Christine Machio, Paul Mwarania, Ephantus Mugo, Martin Nangole, Lucy Njambi, Daisy Nyaboke and Owen Wanjala. Likewise, we thank Christine Ochieng, Paul Mbanga, Wendy Ayres, Rajesh Advani, Jessica Lopez and Clifford Mwaura from the World Bank who helped ensure a strong link between the research and operational activities. The Kenya Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) team provided professional field support throughout the program, with particular thanks to Frank Odhiambo, Bonnyface Mwangi, Geoffrey Onyambu, John Paul Buleti, Allison Stone and Alice Kirungu. The authors also benefited from excellent research assistance from Amy Dolinger, Marco Valenza and Duncan Webb. DIME Analytics provided technical support throughout the analysis with Luiza Andrade conducting code reproducibility checks. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent, nor the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. The authors have no financial or material interests in the results in the paper.
MARC RIS BibTeΧ
- randomized controlled trials registry entry

Financing Municipal Water and Sanitation Services in Nairobi’s Informal Settlements

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