Estimation of water demand in developing countries : an overview

A better understanding of household water use in less developed countries (LDCs) is necessary to manage and expand water systems more effectively. Several meta-analyses have examined the determinants of household water demand in industrialized countries, but little effort has been made to synthesize the growing body of literature evaluating household water demand in LDCs. This article reviews what is known and what is missing from that literature thus far. Analysis of demand for water in LDCs is complicated by abundant evidence that, contrary to what is observed in most developed countries, households in LDCs have access to and may use more than one of several types of water sources. We describe the different modeling strategies that researchers have adopted to estimate water demand in LDCs, and discuss issues related to data collection. The findings from the literature on the main determinants of water demand in LDCs suggest that despite heterogeneity in places and time periods studied, most estimates of own price elasticity of water from private connections are in the range of –0.3 to –0.6, close to what is usually reported for industrialized countries. The empirical findings on household water source decisions are much less robust and should be a high priority for future research. [authors abstract]