1. www.icddrb.org Understanding the rental market to assess value of improved water quality in low-income urban Dhaka Farhana Sultana Research Investigator WASH Research Group Centre for Communicable Diseases icddr,b Water and Health Conference UNC, Chapel Hill, North Carolina October 28, 2015

2. Background Dhaka is one of the fastest growing cities in the world with 15 million population 40% share of Dhaka residents live in slums, and this share is also growing rapidly Most households in Dhaka slums live in rented housing 2 Photo credit: Wafiq Jawad, The World Bank Reference: Rahman et al. 2014

3. Water supply for urban poor 3 Dug well (non-drinking source) Piped water collection Water reservoir system Shared water points Tap water system Photo credit: Nuhu Amin, Nazrin Akter

4. “Improved” water supply for urban poor Most of the slum residents use shared water points for their daily water needs Though considered “improved,” these water points often do not provide safe water 4 Reference: Hanchett et al. 2003, Pickering et al. 2015, Amin et al. (accepted for publication), 2015 –Dhaka municipality water supply authority chlorinate water –Though intermittent supply and poorly maintained networks re-contaminate water –Recent trials found these water contaminated with E.coli and no residual chlorine

5. Point-of-use (POU) water treatment technologies Correct and consistent use of POU technologies reduce the rates of child diarrhea substantially Intervention trials with liquid chlorine reduced diarrhea in many settings 5 Chlorination Aqua tabs Ceramic filtration References: Arnold and Colford, 2007

6. Barriers to using POU water treatment technologies Worldwide, <10% most at risk households treat water correctly and consistently Studies conducted in Dhaka found 15 to 30% uptake of household chlorine tablets, even with free provision Cost, time, maintenance, water smell and temperature were added barriers 6 Reference: Luby et al. 2008, Rosa et al. 2010, Luoto et al. 2011, Raymond et al. 2015 (accepted for publication)

7. Automatic point-of-collection chlorination device An alternative water treatment technology that automatically adds an appropriate dose of chlorine at the last stage of water collection Improves microbiological quality of drinking water Does not require individual level behavior change in the households Potential to be deployed where water points are shared by low- income urban residents 7 Reference: Pickering et al. 2015 Photo credit: Nuhu Amin

8. Objectives To understand the turnover rates, strategies of competition and features of rental housing market systems To explore if landlords view provision of improved water as conferring a competitive advantage in attracting and retaining tenants 8

9. Methods Study site: –Kallyanpur and Korail slums, urban Dhaka Study period: –July - December 2013 Eligibility criteria: –Shared water point users –Landlords, compound managers and tenants living in the slum for > 5 years 9

10. Data collection techniques TechniquesType of respondents Name of slum Interviews = 25 N = 62 In-depth Interviews LandlordsKallyanpur10 Landlords Korail10 Focus Group Discussions Landlords Kallyanpur18 Compound managers Korail18 Tenants Both326 10

11. In-depth interview with landlordFocus group discussions with tenants 11

12. Typical housing in Dhaka slums KallyanpurKorail 12

13. Rented versus empty rooms in a typical year (N=29 landlords) Indicators MeanRange Rooms owned by the landlords8.22-30 Rooms available for rent7.01-26 Rooms rented 6.00-23 Empty rooms in previous year1.20-5 Monthly rental fees in USD20.712-29 13

14. Rental market system in Dhaka slums Average monthly rental fee of a house was $21 including electricity and water supply A single room shared with average six people Support organizations, written rental agreements and advance rent payment systems were nonexistent Landlords maintain oral rental agreements for: –Payment details –Rules and responsibilities of sharing water and sanitation facilities 14

15. Looking for new tenants and new houses Females on both the tenant and landlord side mentioned to have most influence over choices: –Which property to rent –Which applicant to select as tenant Word of mouth in the slums was the main strategy to attract tenants and rent houses Single men and followers of different religions were less preferred as tenants and landlords 15

16. Characteristics of a good tenant (N=36) 16

17. Important factors in choosing new houses by tenants (N=26) 17

18. Factors affecting rental properties and landlords’ investment Slums are often situated either on government or privately owned lands Slum eviction occurs frequently when public land is reclaimed by the government Evictions in both slums led to: –Damaging households, assets and properties –Forcing tenants to change slums and houses –Landlord reluctance to invest improving rental housing –Room vacancies 42% of tenants reported eviction 6-10 times in < 30 years 18

19. Investments for rental households Landlords re-invested 6% of annual revenue that they received from a tenant in housing and compound improvements: –New infrastructure and houses –Hand pumps –Sanitary and electrical services –Cooking areas to attract tenants Such investments also influences the increase in rental fees up to 5% in a typical year 19

20. Conclusions Tenants value water quality when selecting among rental housing options Landlords may thus gain a competitive advantage if they can provide higher quality water at the compound level 20

21. Next steps Intervention to deploy the automatic point-of- collection chlorination device to: –Improve the water quality –Measure health impact –Provide competitive advantage in the rental market, especially among female tenants –Benefit landlords to increase rental fees –Evaluate landlord and household willingness to pay ($0.12 - 0.25) for disinfected water –Collect feedback to refine the intervention 21

22. Acknowledgements 22 Stanford University Jenna Davis Amy J. Pickering Stephen P. Luby Yoshika Crider Funding Stanford University, Woods Institute for the Environment and the Urban Services Initiative at J-PAL icddr,b Leanne E. Unicomb Nazrin Akter M. Nofiz Bin Zaman Probir K. Gosh Diana DiazGranados Astrid K. Dier Md. Mahbubur Rahman Study participants Dustho Sasthyo Kendra (DSK) Contact: farhana.sultana@icddrb.org farhana.sultana@icddrb.org

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