Person:
Joseph, George
Author Name Variants
Fields of Specialization
Impact evaluation,
Applied microeconomics
Degrees
Departments
Global Practice on Water, The World Bank
Externally Hosted Work
Contact Information
Last updated
June 26, 2023
Biography
George Joseph is a Senior Economist with the Water Global Practice of the World Bank, Washington, DC. His research interests are centered on development economics and behavioral and applied microeconomics. He received his PhD in economics from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, and an MA in economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
Publication Search Results
1 - 10 of 20
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Publication
Water and Sanitation in Dhaka Slums: Access, Quality, and Informality in Service Provision
(Taylor and Francis, 2020-07-16)Slum populations are commonly characterized to have poorly developed water and sanitation systems and speculated to access services through informal channels. However, there are limited representative profiles of water and sanitation services in slums, making it difficult to prioritize interventions that will make services safer for residents. This cross-sectional study examines quality and provision of access to water and sanitation services in government slums across Dhaka, Bangladesh. Access is overall high but is subject to quality issues related to safety, reliability, and liability. Services are often operated by informal middlemen at various stages of provision. -
Publication
An Assessment of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Access in Bangladesh's Community Health Clinics
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-06)Adequate water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in health care facilities plays a critical role in ensuring improved health care utilization and reducing disease burden due to reinfection. WASH in health facilities is now gaining momentum with the new SDG targets that governments have vowed to meet. This goal calls for a baseline examination of existing WASH conditions in health facilities. Using data collected through a census of all community health clinics in Bangladesh, this paper presents an analysis of the state of WASH in Bangladesh's rural, public health facilities highlighting that the lack of functionality of WASH facilities is a widespread problem across the country. The paper also identifies priority areas for action when considering the prevalence of poverty and chronic undernutrition at the upazilla level. -
Publication
A Multiple-Arm, Cluster-Randomized Impact Evaluation of the Clean India (Swachh Bharat) Mission Program in Rural Punjab, India
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-05)This study reports the findings of a large-scale, multiple-arm, cluster-randomized control study carried out in rural Punjab, India, to assess the impact of a flagship sanitation program of the Government of India. The program, the Clean India Mission for Villages, was implemented between October 2014 and October 2019 and aimed to encourage the construction of toilets, eliminate the practice of open defecation, and improve the awareness and practice of good hygiene across rural India. It utilized a combination of behavioral change campaigns, centered on the community-led total sanitation approach, and financial incentives for eligible households. The study also evaluates the incremental effects of intensive hygiene awareness campaigns in selected schools and follow-up initiatives in selected communities. The study finds that the coverage of “safely managed” toilets among households without toilets increased by 6.8–10.4 percentage points across various intervention arms, compared with a control group. Open defecation was reduced by 7.3–7.8 percentage points. The program also had significant positive impacts on hygiene awareness among adults and children, although the interventions of school campaigns and intensive follow-up were of limited additional impact. -
Publication
Study of the Distributional Performance of Piped Water Consumption Subsidies in 10 Developing Countries
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-05)This paper provides new evidence on how effectively piped water consumption subsidies are targeting poor households in 10 low- and middle-income countries around the world. The results suggest that, in these countries, existing tariff structures fall short of recovering the costs of service provision, and the resulting subsidies largely fail to achieve their goal of improving the accessibility and affordability of piped water for poor households. Instead, the majority of subsidies in all 10 countries are captured by the richest households. This is in part because the most vulnerable population segments typically face challenges in accessing and connecting to piped water services. The paper also reveals shortcomings in the design of the subsidies, which are conditional on poor households being connected to a piped network. -
Publication
Children Need Clean Water to Grow: E. Coli Contamination of Drinking Water and Childhood Nutrition in Bangladesh
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-11)Water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions are increasingly recognized as essential for improving nutritional outcomes in children. Emerging literature describes the negative effects of poor sanitation on child growth. However, limited evidence has shown a link between water quality and nutritional outcomes. Similar to poor sanitation, it is plausible that water contaminated with E. coli could affect the nutritional status of children through various possible biological pathways, such as repeated episodes of diarrhea, environmental enteropathy, parasites, or other mechanisms that inhibit nutrient uptake and absorption. This study explores the relationship between contaminated water and stunting prevalence among children younger than age five years, using unique cross-sectional data from the 2012–13 Bangladesh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, which was one of the first nationally representative surveys to include water quality testing for E. coli. E. coli contamination in drinking water is measured at household and source points. Stunting is measured using height-for-age z-scores for children under five, where a child is considered stunted when he or she is two or more standard deviations below the median of the World Health Organization reference population. The results of multiple probit regression models indicate a 6 percent increase in the prevalence of stunting in children who are exposed to highly contaminated drinking water at household point compared with those exposed to low-to-medium contamination. When contamination is measured at the source level, the association is greater, with a 9 percent increase in the likelihood of stunting when exposed to a high level of contamination. -
Publication
Troubled Tariffs: Revisiting Water Pricing for Affordable and Sustainable Water Services
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-12-02)Tariffs are essential but not the only pathway to cost recovery, addressing affordability, and managing water conservation. To maximize their potential, they must be well designed, complemented by appropriate instruments, adequately regulated, and understood by customers. This report builds upon that one, and provides policy makers with the information needed to design better tariffs to further the economic efficiency, affordability, and environmental sustainability of water supply services. Through a layered and comprehensive analysis of the most prevalent tariff structures, it provides policy makers with specific guidance on pricing water supply services in response to the sector’s often-competing goals. This document comprises a synthesis of fifteen unique research papers that, combined, articulate a step-by-step thought process for designing effective tariffs with a view to achieving sustainable development goal (SDG) 6. -
Publication
Glaciers, Rivers, and Springs: A Water Sector Diagnostic of Nepal
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022)Nepal is rich in water resources with a dense network of glaciers, lakes, rivers, and springs that originate in the Himalayas. However, only an estimated 15 billion cubic meters (BCM) of the 225 BCM water available annually is utilized for economic and social purposes. Several elements have contributed to this low rate of utilization, including Nepal’s rugged geography, inadequate institutional capacity, a history of prolonged political instability, and highly skewed seasonality - more than 80 percent of the precipitation in a year falls within a span of four months. For sustained economic growth and poverty reduction, and to enhance shared prosperity, Nepal must increase its investments in water-related infrastructure and institutions and improve the effectiveness of these investments. Although there is much to be done to harness this vital resource, it is important to broaden the development focus and integrate hydropower in a larger water resource management strategy. This strategy will ensure that water is available for basic and economic needs - even through the dry season - as a core component of Nepal’s overall development plan. Given Nepal’s development context and challenges, this document aims to analyze the most pressing sector challenges and identify strategic sector priorities that are aligned with the country’s partnership framework. It offers a snapshot of water in Nepal’s development story and situates the water sector in the broader context of the national economy, highlighting the importance of managing water resources for sustained economic growth and poverty reduction. It then presents five pressing sector-related challenges and concludes with a set of priority areas. -
Publication
Cholera Risk in Lusaka: A Geospatial Analysis to Inform Improved Water and Sanitation Provision
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-06-26)Urbanization combined with climate change are exacerbating water scarcity for an increasing number of the world’s emerging cities. Water and sanitation infrastructure, which in the first place was largely built to cater only to a small subsector of developing city populations during colonial times, are increasingly coming under excessive strain. In the rapidly growing cities of the developing world, expansion does not always keep pace with population demand, leading to waterborne diseases, such as cholera (Vibrio cholerae) and typhoid (Salmonella serotype Typhi). Funding gaps therefore make targeting for efficient spending on infrastructure upgrades essential for reducing the burden of disease. This paper applies geospatial analysis in Lusaka, Zambia, in the context of the cholera outbreak of October 2017 to May 2018, to identify different water and sanitation infrastructure investment scenarios and their relative impact on reducing the risk of cholera in the city. The analysis presented uses cholera case location data and geospatial covariates, including the location of and access to networked and non-networked Water and sanitation infrastructure, groundwater vulnerability, and drainage, to generate a high-resolution map of cholera risk across the city. The analysis presents scenarios of standalone or combined investments across sewerage coverage and maintenance, on-site sanitation improvements, piped water network coverage and quality, and ensuring the safety of point source water. It identifies the investment most strongly correlated with the largest reduction in cholera risk as the provision of flush to sewer infrastructure citywide. However, it also considers the trade-offs in terms of financial cost versus health benefits and takes note of where the next highest health benefits could be achieved for a much lower cost. Finally, the analysis was done in the context of a considered restructuring of an existing World Bank investment, the Lusaka Sanitation Program. It identifies what appears to be the most efficient combined initiative as partial sanitation investment scale-up and investment in piped water in 10 priority wards where the cholera risk was highest. -
Publication
An Evaluation of the Contributing Factors of Water Scheme Failures in Nigeria
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03)This paper utilizes information from the 2015 Nigeria National Water and Sanitation Survey to identify the extent and timing of the failure of water schemes in the country and the factors affecting it. Around 46 percent of all the water schemes in Nigeria are nonfunctional, and approximately 30 percent are likely to fail in the first year. The results indicate that during the first year of operation, factors that can be controlled in the design, implementation, and operational stages contribute to the failure of 61 percent of the water schemes. As water schemes age, their likelihood of failure is best predicted by factors that cannot be modified. The influence of operational factors, such as repairs and maintenance, decreases slightly over time. -
Publication
Why Are So Many Water Points in Nigeria Non-Functional?: An Empirical Analysis of Contributing Factors
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03)This paper utilizes information from the 2015 Nigeria National Water and Sanitation Survey to identify the extent, timing, as well as reasons for the failure of water points. The paper finds that more than 38 percent of all improved water points are nonfunctional. The results indicate that nearly 27 percent of the water points are likely to fail in the first year of construction, while nearly 40 percent are likely to fail in the long run (after 8-10 years). The paper considers the reasons behind these failures, looking at whether they can or cannot be controlled. During the first year, a water point's location -- the political region and underlying hydrogeology -- has the greatest impact on functionality. Other factors—specifically, those that can be controlled in the design, implementation, and operational stages -- also contribute significantly. As water points age, their likelihood of failure is best predicted by factors that cannot be modified, as well as by the technology used. The paper concludes that, to improve the sustainability of water points, much can be done at the design, implementation, and operational stages. Over time, technology upgrades are important.