Water and sanitation for all? Rural versus urban provision

In most developing countries, there is a huge gap in the delivery of services like water and sanitation between rural and urban areas. Traditionally, urban areas were favoured over rural ones. This better access to services is one of the drivers of urbanisation. But at the same time, urbanisation puts a heavy strain on service delivery in urban areas. In the paper, cross country panel regressions are used to compare institutional factors like corruption and decentralisation as well as financing that might influence access to water and sanitation in rural versus urban areas. Decentralisation seems to have a positive effect on rural provision of water and sanitation, whereas the effects of sectoral aid and controlling corruption seem to be rather limited. The paper concludes with policy advice on how to improve access to water and sanitation.