About This Project

Clean water is often unavailable in the Dominican Republic, and while the non-profit World Water Relief (WWR) has taken measures to provide access and education to rural communities, the effects of cleaner water on school attendance and illness rates have not been quantified. To evaluate WWR's impact, I will digitize data of school attendance and clinic patient records before and after WWR, and analyze the connections between clean water and education to better inform infrastructure investment.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

Improvements in both access to clean water and hygiene education at schools have been found to have positive effects on student attendance rates in rural and underdeveloped communities. It is no secret that clean drinking water and hand washing can do a lot to prevent illness.

What has not been properly addressed by the scientific community are:

1) The combined (possibly interactive) effect of these two interventions on school attendance as opposed to individually.

2) How or if the effect of these two interventions' on absenteeism changes after multiple years of implementation.

3) What effect these interventions have on rates of stomach illness among all members of communities with access to the clean water systems (not just students at those schools).

What is the significance of this project?

The significance of this project boils down to the quantification of the impact that infrastructural investment has on health and by extension, education. The cost of medicine and resulting lack thereof in impoverished communities makes a dollar of prevention worth hundreds of dollars of a cure. Additionally, the opportunity cost for students who miss school because of illness is far greater in communities with scarce teaching resources to account for missed school days. This study and others like it show the benefit of long term investments in infrastructure on health and education. With this knowledge, investing can be done efficiently and effectively. Arguably the most sustainable investment possible in development is one that improves the education of a community's children.

What are the goals of the project?

1. Scan 5+ years of records from 6-8 each of schools with and without WWR. This period will include years before and after WWR started working at the school.

2. Scan up to 10 years of patient records at at least 2 clinics where members of these communities would be seen.

3. Captricity.org will digitize the relevant information on the records and send me an electronic data set for analysis.

4. Analyze results using cluster analysis.

5. Write an impact evaluation for WWR explaining what changes in the rates of absenteeism and stomach illness can be seen among the communities they work in since they have started working there.