Community-Based Well Maintenance in Rural Haiti

This paper evaluates a new technology for providing water. The technology, developed by Haiti Outreach (HO), is distinguished by a program training communities to manage wells. The effects of training are identified by comparing HO's wells with wells refurbished by HO but subsequently managed under the status quo. There are large differences in functionality after only one year (8.7 percentage points). For policy-makers choosing between standard and community-based interventions, I quantify the tradeoff between equity (sporadically providing water to all) and efficiency (consistently providing water to most). I interpret the estimated tradeoff to strongly favor community-based interventions.*First version January 2012