Unsafe drinking water, Malnutrition and Education

Prakash Satyavageeswaran

Indian School of Business

• Motivation

• Literature

– Water Contamination & Waterborne diseases

– Waterborne diseases & malnutrition

– Malnutrition & cognitive development

– Social marketing

• Connecting the dots

• Practitioner relevance

• Implications & Directions

Motivation

• Social marketing & water interventions

• Quest for simple interventions

Water Borne Diseases

• ~ 11 million children < 5 die every year

– Diarrhoea claims 1/5th of them (Boschi- Pinto et al, 2008)

• Impact higher if seen from DALYs perspective

Malnutrition

• ‘Diarrhoea as a cause and an effect of malnutrition’ (Guerrant et al, 1992)

• Reduction of immunity (Cairncross & Bartram, 2000)

Cognitive Development

• Malnutrition causes physical stunting (Alderman et al, 2006) – Later starting of school

– Dropping out early

• Diminished cognitive function (Nieahaus et al, 2002)

• Reduced cognitive development (Borwn & Pollitt, 1996) – Structural damage to brain

– Reduced exploration of environment

Prevention of Contamination

• Safe water is key in preventing outbreak of diarrhoeal diseases (Hunter, 1997)

• Effectiveness of treatment at source (Esray et al, 1986 & 1991)

• Treatment at household level (Clasen, 2003)

Social Marketing

• Need for effective communication & behavioural change (Bartram & Cairncross, 2010)

• Social marketing adapts commercial marketing techniques to improve welfare (Andreason, 1994)

Implications & Directions

• Intervention at schools

– Social marketing based (If drinking Coke is trendy, why not

drinking clean water?)

– Provision of clean water at school

– Encouraging the message to be taken back home

• Obvious?

– ACER data seems to suggest otherwise

– Need for further research