Improved access to safe water: effects on adult health and time allocation in rural Zambia

This paper examines the short-term impact of improved access to safe water on adult health and time allocation at newly constructed boreholes in rural Zambia. We employ a difference-in-differences estimation using a dataset collected under a quasi-experimental setting. We observe that improved access to safe water reduced diarrhoeal incidence among working-age adults and the resulting decrease in the number of days during which they could not perform their regular activities due to diarrhoea, although the economic benefits resulting from health impacts were very limited. With respect to time allocation, we find that improved access to safe water reduced time spent on water-related household chores of female adults. We do not observe any significant increase in time spent on income-generating activities. Instead, the time-gain benefit for working-age adults can be found in leisure time, particularly among females who live near the new boreholes.