Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T15:45:20.790Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Wastewater use in crop production in peri-urban areas of Addis Ababa: impacts on health in farm households

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 September 2010

ALEBEL B. WELDESILASSIE ,
ELINE BOELEE ,
PAY DRECHSEL  and
STEPHAN DABBERT
ALEBEL B. WELDESILASSIE
Affiliation:
Ethiopian Development Research Institute (EDRI), P.O. Box 2479, Near National Stadium Blue Building, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Tel: +251 11 5506066. Email: [email protected]
ELINE BOELEE
Affiliation:
International Water Management Institute (IWMI), P.O. Box 2075, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Email: [email protected]
PAY DRECHSEL
Affiliation:
International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Colombo, Sri Lanka. Email: [email protected]
STEPHAN DABBERT
Affiliation:
Hohenheim University, Institute 410A, 70593 Stuttgart, Germany. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Using stream water polluted with untreated wastewater in agriculture is controversial due to its combination of benefits and negative health impacts. Using data from a household survey, ‘wastewater’ and ‘freshwater’ farmers were analysed comparatively to examine the perceived impacts of irrigation water quality on farmers' health and to evaluate the extent of health damage. Probability of illness was estimated using the theory of utility-maximising behaviour of households subject to the conventional farm household production model, augmented by adding a health production function. Reduced model and instrumental variable probit specifications both show that perceived illness prevalence is significantly higher for household members working on wastewater irrigation farms than for those working with freshwater. Our data entails econometric complications (e.g., endogeneity of farmers' behaviour, unobserved location-specific characteristics). Ignoring these will result in underestimation of the value of policy interventions designed to reduce potential health damage of wastewater use in irrigation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , February 2011 , pp. 25 - 49
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Addis Ababa Master Plan Project Office (2002), Addis Ababa Master Plan Final Report: Executive summary, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Addis Ababa City Administration Office.Google Scholar
Alberini, A. (1997), ‘Valuing health effects of air pollution in developing countries: the case of Taiwan’, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 34: 107–126.Google Scholar
Case, A. and Deaton, A. (1999), ‘School inputs and educational outcomes in South Africa’, The Quarterly Journal of Economics 114: 1047–1084.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Central Statistical Authority (2004), Welfare Monitoring Survey: Analytical Report, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.Google Scholar
Cifuentes, E., Gomez, M., Blumenthal, U., Tellez-Rojo, M.M., Romieu, I., Ruiz-Polacios, G., and Ruiz-Velazco, S. (2000), ‘Risk factors for giardia intestinal in agricultural villages practicing irrigation in Mexico’, American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 62: 388–392.Google Scholar
Dasgupta, P. (2004), ‘Valuing health damages from water pollution in urban Delhi, India: a health production function approach’, Environment and Development Economics 9: 83–106.Google Scholar
Downs, T.J., Cifuentes-Garcia, E., and Suffet, I.M. (1999), ‘Risk screening for exposure to groundwater pollution in a wastewater irrigation district of the Mexico City region’, Environmental Health Perspectives 107: 553–561.Google Scholar
Drechsel, P., Graefe, S., Sonou, M., and Cofie, O.O. (2006), ‘Informal irrigation in urban West Africa: an overview’, Research Report 102, International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Colombo, Sri Lanka.Google Scholar
Drechsel, P., Scott, C.A., Raschid-Sally, L., Redwood, M., and Bahri, A. (2010), Wastewater irrigation and health: Assessing and mitigating risk in low-income countries, Earthscan, London: The International Water Management Institute and the International Development Research Centre.Google Scholar
Drummond, M.F., O'Brien, B., Stoddart, G.L., and Torrance, G.W. (1997), Methods for the Economic Evaluation of Health Care Programmes, 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford Medical Publications.Google Scholar
Environmental Protection Authority (2003), ‘Standards for industrial pollution control in Ethiopia’, prepared by the Federal Environmental Protection Authority and The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation under the Ecologically Sustainable Industrial Development (ESID) Project, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.Google Scholar
Environmental Protection Authority (2005), ‘Review of the status of Akaki river water pollution (first draft): Document prepared as part I of the Akaki river management strategic implementation plan for 2005–2010’, Federal Environmental Protection Authority, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.Google Scholar
Ersado, L. (2005), ‘Small-scale irrigation dams, agricultural production, and health: theory and evidence from Ethiopia’, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 3494, World Bank, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Gerking, S. and Stanley, L.R. (1986), ‘An economic analysis of air pollution and health: the case of St. Louis’, The Review of Economics and Statistics 68: 115–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grossman, M. (1972), ‘On the concept of health capital and the demand for health’, Journal of Political Economy 80: 223–55.Google Scholar
Habbari, K., Tifnouti, A., Bitton, G., and Mandil, A. (2000), ‘Geohelminthic infections associated with raw wastewater reuse for agricultural purposes in Beni-Mellal, Morocco’, Parasitology International 48: 249–254.Google Scholar
Harrington, W., Krupnick, A.J., and Spofford, W.O. (1989), ‘The economic losses of a waterborne disease outbreak’, Journal of Urban Economics 25: 116–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansen, L.P. (1982). ‘Large sample properties of Generalized Method of Moments Estimators’, Econometrica 50: 1029–54.Google Scholar
Hussain, I., Raschid, L., Hanjra, M.A., Marikar, F., and van der Hoek, W. (2002), ‘Wastewater use in agriculture: review of impacts and methodological issues in valuing impacts (with an extended list of bibliographical references)’, Working Paper 37, International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Colombo, Sri Lanka.Google Scholar
Jacoby, H. (1993), ‘Shadow wages and peasant family labour supply: an econometric application to the Peruvian Sierra’, Review of Economic Studies 60: 903–922.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jekel, J.F., Elmore, J.G., and Katz, D. L. (1996), Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Preventive Medicine, Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders.Google Scholar
Keraita, B., Jimenez, B., and Drechsel, P. (2008), ‘Extent and implications of agricultural reuse of untreated, partly treated and diluted wastewater in developing countries’, CAB Reviews: Perspectives in Agriculture, Veterinary Science, Nutrition and Natural Resources 3: 15.Google Scholar
Maddala, G.S. (1983), Limited-Dependent and Qualitative Variables in Econometrics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mekonen, A. (2007), ‘Suitability assessment of Little Akaki River for irrigation’, unpublished M.Sc. thesis, Department of Chemical Engineering, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.Google Scholar
Mullahy, J. and Sindelar, J. (1989), ‘Life cycle effects of alcoholism on education, earning and occupation’, Inquiry 26: 272–282.Google ScholarPubMed
Pitt, M.M. and Rosenzweig, M R. (1985), ‘Health and nutrient consumption across and within farm households’, The Review of Economics and Statistics 67: 212–223.Google Scholar
Pitt, M.M. and Rosenzweig, M.R. (1986), ‘Agricultural prices, food consumption, and the health and productivity of Indonesian farmers’, in Singh, I., Squire, L., and Strauss, J. (eds), Agricultural Household Models: Extensions, Applications, and Policy, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 153–182.Google Scholar
Raschid-Sally, L. and Jayakody, P. (2008), ‘Drivers and characteristics of wastewater agriculture in developing countries – results from a global assessment’, Research Report 127, International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Colombo, Sri Lanka.Google Scholar
Rosenzweig, M.R. and Schultz, T.P. (1982), ‘Market opportunities, genetic endowments and intra-family resource distribution: child survival in rural India’, American Economic Review 72: 803–815.Google Scholar
Rosenzweig, M.R. and Schultz, T.P. (1983), ‘Estimating a household production function: heterogeneity, the demand for health inputs and their effect on birth weight’, Journal of Political Economy 91: 723–746.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, C.A., Faruqui, N.I., and Raschid-Sally, L. (eds.) (2004) Wastewater Use in Irrigated Agriculture: Confronting the Livelihood and Environmental Realities, Wallingford, UK: CABI.Google Scholar
Shuval, H.I., Adin, A.A., Fattel, B., Rawitz, E., and Yeutiel, P. (1986), ‘Wastewater irrigation in developing countries: health effects and technical solutions’, Technical Paper No.51, World Bank, Washington D.C.Google Scholar
WHO (2006), ‘Guidelines for the safe use of wastewater, excreta and grey water: wastewater use in agriculture, Vol.2, [Online], http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/wastewater/en/ (Accessed on 29 May 2007), World Health Organization.Google Scholar
Wooldridge, J.M. (2002), Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Weldesilassie Supplementary Material

Appendix.PDF

Download Weldesilassie Supplementary Material(PDF)
PDF 137.1 KB