The Gendered Impact of Urban Piped Water Development: Evidence from Mandalay, Myanmar

The rapid growth of urban populations has dramatically increased the demand for water. In many low- and middle-income countries, urban residents—particularly poor households—are frequently exposed to the risk of water scarcity. However, studies on the impact of urban water supplies have been scarce in contrast to the extensive literature on rural water development. This study investigates the short-term impact of the installation of an urban piped water system to the premises in Mandalay City on enhancing the well-being of local residents. We employ a difference-in-differences estimation using a dataset collected under a quasi-experimental setting. We provide several findings. The new piped water supply to the premises significantly reduced the burden of pumping water from private wells for working-age adults of both sexes. A significant decrease in the incidence of diarrhea was found for women who used unsafe water before connecting to the new piped water system. No significant impact was observed on school attendance of children and adolescents or household domestic work, self-business, and wage employment of working-age adults. In contrast, the reduced burden of pumping water from private wells encouraged women to take on casual employment, increasing household income and consumption, most notably among those who used unsafe water before the project. We conclude that improvements in well-being depend on gender and the quality of water before the project, and the impact is heterogeneous even in the same urban areas.