Water for Life: The Impact of the Privatization of Water Services on Child Mortality

Abstract

While most countries are committed,to increasing access to safe water and thereby reducing child mortality, there is little consensus on how to actually improve water services. One important,proposal under discussion is whether to privatize water provision. In the 1990s Argentina embarked,on one of the largest privatization campaigns,in the world including the privatization of local water companies,covering approximately,30 percent of the country’s municipalities. Using the varia tion in ownership,of water provision across time and space generated by the privatization process, we find 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. We check the robustness of these estimates using cause specific mortality. While privatization is associated with significant reductions in deaths from infectious and parasitic diseases, it is uncorrelated with deaths from causes unrelated to water conditions. JEL:D60, H51, I10, I30, L33, O12 Keywords:privatization, child mortality, water provision, and poverty. ,,,,,,, ,,,,