Small water enterprise in rural rwanda: Business development and year-one performance evaluation of nine water kiosks at health care facilities

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Alexandra Huttinger, Emory University; Laura Brunson, Emory University; Christine L Moe, Emory University; Kristin Roha, Emory University; Providence Ngirimpuhwe, The Access Project Rwanda; Leodomir Mfura, The Access Project Rwanda; Felix Kayigamba, The Access Project Rwanda; Philbert Ciza, The Republic of Rwanda Ministry of Health; Robert Dreibelbis, University of Oklahoma
• Language: English
• Date: 2017-12-16
• Publisher: MDPI
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14121584
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• ISSN: 1661-7827
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 12
• Grant/Funding Information: This work was entirely funded by grants from the General Electric Foundation, including the costs to publish in open access.
• Keywords: demand estimation; sub-Saharan Africa; water treatment; cost model
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Public Health; Environmental Sciences

Abstract

Small water enterprises (SWEs) have lower capital expenditures than centralized systems, offering decentralized solutions for rural markets. This study evaluated SWEs in rural Rwanda, where nine health care facilities (HCF) owned and operated water kiosks supplying water from onsite water treatment systems (WTS). SWEs were monitored for 12 months. Spearman’s Rank Correlation Coefficient (r s ) was used to evaluate correlations between demand for kiosk water and community characteristics, and between kiosk profit and factors influencing the cost model. On average, SWEs distributed 15,300 L/month. One SWE ran at a loss, four had profit margins of ≤10% and four had profit margins of 45–75%. Factors influencing SWE performance were intermittent water supply (87% of SWE closures were due to water shortage), consumer demand (demand was high where populations already used improved water sources (r s = –0.81, p = 0.02)), price sensitivity (demand was lower where SWEs had high prices (r s = –0.65, p = 0.08)), and production cost (water utility tariffs negatively impacted SWE profits (r s = –0.52, p < 0.01)). Sustainability was more favorable in circumstances where recovery of capital expenditures was not expected, and the demand for treated water was sufficient to fund operational expenditures. Future research is needed to assess the extent to which kiosk revenue can support ongoing operational costs of WTS and kiosks both at HCF and in other contexts.