Ban, RaduDas Gupta, MonicaRao, Vijayendra2012-05-222012-05-222008-12https://hdl.handle.net/10986/6332Despite 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.CC BY 3.0 IGOALLOCATION OF RESOURCESBASIC SERVICESBEHAVIORAL CHANGESCHILD MORTALITYCITIZENCITIZENSCLEANLINESSDEMOGRAPHIC PRESSURESDEMOGRAPHIC TRENDSDEVELOPING COUNTRIESDEVELOPMENT POLICYDRINKING WATEREMPLOYMENTENVIRONMENTAL SANITATIONEPIDEMICGARBAGE DISPOSALGOVERNMENT AGENCIESHEALTH CENTERSHEALTH EDUCATIONHEALTH IMPACTHEALTH OUTCOMESHEALTH REGULATIONSHEALTH RISKSHEALTH SYSTEMHUMAN DEVELOPMENTLACK OF AWARENESSLAWSLOCAL GOVERNMENTSMALARIAMORBIDITYNATIONAL LEVELNATIONAL LEVELSPOLICY IMPLICATIONSPOLICY RESEARCHPOLICY RESEARCH WORKING PAPERPOPULATION DENSITYPOPULATION SIZEPROGRESSPUBLIC AWARENESSPUBLIC HEALTHPUBLIC SERVICESRESOURCE ALLOCATIONROADSRURAL DEVELOPMENTSAFE DRINKING WATERSANITARY ENVIRONMENTSANITATIONSANITATION SERVICE DELIVERYSANITATION SERVICESSCARCE RESOURCESSCHOOLSSERVICE DELIVERYSERVICE PROVISIONSOCIAL EXCLUSIONSOCIAL SCIENCESSUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTTOILETSVECTOR CONTROLWASTEWASTE DISPOSALWATER SUPPLYWORKERSWorld Bank10.1596/1813-9450-4802