Many private households spend considerable amounts of time accessing water, for instance
by walking to and queuing at public access points, or by filling storage vessels at taps with low flow
rates. This time has an opportunity cost, which can be substantial and may impact which water
services and quantities of water households demand. In a novel form of diary study, we gathered
detailed water consumption and time use data from 50 households in five informal settlements of the
Indian metropolis Pune, accompanied by a household survey and in-depth interviews. With the data,
we characterize water collection behaviors and assign monetary values to water procurement time.
We statistically analyze the effects of time cost on consumed quantities in several two-level mixed effect models. Household members in our sample spend up to several hours each day filling storage
vessels, even if a private connection to the piped network is available. Average time cost amounted
to the equivalent of 4.23–13.81% of monthly household cash income. Our analyses indicate that
procurement time reduces quantitative water demand in a significant way. The households incurring
the highest per-unit time cost consumed water quantities below minimum levels recommended for
human health. This substantiates that time costs can impede access to water and are a relevant issue
for water management and policy.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:85997 |
| Date | 13 June 2023 |
| Creators | Zozmann, Heinrich, Klassert, Christian, Klauer, Bernd, Gawel, Erik |
| Publisher | MDPI |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion, doc-type:article, info:eu-repo/semantics/article, doc-type:Text |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | 1009 |
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