4% of households in rural Zambia use piped water. A study carried out by scientists from Standford sought to discover how much and in what way piped water can improve the lives of Zambians living in remote villages.
The study began by measuring the impact of installing piped water systems by following four villages in a rural district of Zambia’s southern province over a period of 12 months. Halfway through the study, two of the villages received piped water systems that delivered water supply to yard taps, reducing the median distance of their water source from more than 200 metres to just 15 metres.
In all four villages they interviewed female heads of households, collected data from GPS sensors and conducted detailed observations of the villages. They also installed meters in the villages that received the piped systems to measure water use. Using data from multiple sources allowed the team to get and compare different views of the effects of having piped water.
From these tests, it was found that households who obtained yard taps spent 80% less time fetching water than those in the control group, saving nearly four hours a week on average. The time savings accrued almost entirely to women and girls, who are the primary water fetchers in rural Zambia. When asked how gaining access to piped water affected their emotional outlook, 64% of respondents reported feeling happier, 47% reported that their families were healthier and 22% reported being less worried.
Previous studies that investigated time savings from water supply improvements concluded – often with a sense of disappointment – that women reallocated saved time towards sleep and leisure. The study maintained that a woman is the best judge of how her time should be allocated. Moreover, a growing literature links inadequate sleep to a host of physical and mental health ailments, and to diminished child care quality. Based on their calculations, reducing the time cost of water fetching could help reduce these public health threats for some 2.5 million women and their children in rural Zambia.
