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Zambia: Should Clean Water Have a Price? LUSAKA, Zambia, March 31, 2007 — A study in Zambia has shown that charging a price can help get life-saving products into the hands of those who use them the most and may even cause people to use them more than they would otherwise, according to an article on Forbes.com which will also appear in the next issue of Forbes magazine. Since 1999, PSI has marketed a bleach solution in Zambia called Clorin. A few drops in stored drinking water kill the pathogens that cause diarrhea and other water-borne illnesses. A one-month's supply of Clorin retails for 25 cents. However, some policymakers have criticized charging anything for health products that are desperately needed in poor countries, products ranging from insecticide-treated mosquito nets to antiretroviral drugs. Basic economics teaches that the more a product costs, the fewer people will buy it. Harvard Business School, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Chicago decided to test that theory in the Zambian context in 2006 in collaboration with PSI be visiting 1,000 households in Lusaka, the capital, and offering Clorin for sale at different prices. They found that households that agreed to pay more for Clorin did use it more; their water was more likely to be chlorinated when it was tested two weeks later. There is some evidence that those who paid something were more likely to use their Clorin than those who got it for free. Read the article (free subscription required) written by Jesse M. Shapiro, Becker Fellow, Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory, University of Chicago.
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