The Political Economy of Village Sanitation in South India : Capture or Poor Information ?
Despite efforts to mandate and finance local governments' provision of environmental sanitation services, outcomes remain poor in the villages surveyed in the four South Indian states. The analysis indicates some key issues that appear to hin...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Washington, DC: World Bank
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2008/12/10134717/political-economy-village-sanitation-south-india-capture-or-poor-information http://hdl.handle.net/10986/6332 |
| Summary: | Despite efforts to mandate and finance
local governments' provision of environmental
sanitation services, outcomes remain poor in the villages
surveyed in the four South Indian states. The analysis
indicates some key issues that appear to hinder improvements
in sanitation. Local politicians tend to capture sanitary
infrastructure and cleaning services for themselves, while
also keeping major village roads reasonably well-served.
Their decisions suggest, however, that they neither
understand the health benefits of sanitation, nor the
negative externalities to their own health if surrounding
areas are poorly served. Our findings suggest that improving
sanitary outcomes requires disseminating information on the
public goods nature of their health benefits, as well as on
the local government's responsibilities. It also
requires putting public health regulations in place, along
with measures to enable accountability in service provision. |
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