Poverty-Lack of Access to Adequate Safe Water Nexus: Evidence from Rural Malawi

• Published in: African development review Vol. 25; no. 4; pp. 537 - 550
• Main Authors: Mkondiwa, Maxwell, Jumbe, Charles B.L., Wiyo, Kenneth A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.12.2013
• Subjects: Access; Adequacy; Appropriations and expenditures; Correlation; Correlation analysis; Developing countries; Development economics; Discriminant Analysis; Economic development; Evidence; Expenditure; Households; Income; Intervention; Interventions; LDCs; Low Income Groups; Malawi; Management; Poor; Poverty; Rural Areas; Rural communities; Rural poverty; Surveys; Water; Water resources; Water resources management; Water Supply; Malawi
• ISSN: 1017-6772; 1467-8268
• DOI: 10.1111/1467-8268.12048

This paper investigates the relationship between poverty and lack of access to adequate safe water in rural Malawi. Data used in the analysis was collected from a survey covering 1,651 randomly selected households. We use Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA) as a distinct technique for understanding the poverty–rural water access nexus. CCA results indicate that poverty in the context of low income and expenditure is positively correlated with lack of access to safe and adequate water. Integrated Rural Water Resources Management (IRWM) interventions are therefore needed to address both challenges of poverty and poor access to adequate safe water in rural Malawi.