Graduation Year

2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

M.S.E.V.

Degree Name

MS in Environmental Engr. (M.S.E.V.)

Degree Granting Department

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Major Professor

Maya Trotz, Ph.D.

Committee Member

James Mihelcic, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Linda Whiteford, Ph.D.

Keywords

Sanitation Marketing, Improved Sanitation GIS, iDE, Cambodia

Abstract

Sanitation marketing is an emerging approach of strengthening the local private sector to implement scalable and sustainable improved sanitation coverage in developing countries, specifically among the poor. It encourages the enhancement of sanitation market supply and demand by developing distribution infrastructure and stimulating consumer interest. Unlike interventions that provide hardware subsidies to initiate sanitation demand, financial support for sanitation marketing is used exclusively for the research and development of the market; this encourages the private sector to become independent and self-sufficient. Qualitative data suggests that while sanitation marketing projects have been successful at implementing replicable and sustainable sanitation coverage, they are not effective in close proximity to other programs that provide hardware subsidies.

The aim of this study is to determine how hardware subsidies impacted iDE’s (formerly International Development Enterprise) Cambodia Sanitation Marketing Scale-Up (SMSU) project using quantitative data collected between 2010 and 2014, and to develop an approach that best illustrates this relationship. Using their project database of 48,844 transactions in 9 provinces, QGIS 2.8.1 and MS Excel were used to determine the correlations between the NGO (subsidized) and customer sales. QGIS maps and time-lapse animations were effective in spatially juxtaposing the quantity and location of both NGO and customer sales, and MS Excel charts quantified the relationship as a function of time, identifying opposing correlational patterns.

Within the Cambodia SMSU project, the provision of hardware subsidies (represented by NGO sales) resulted in the attrition of the sanitation marketplace (represented by customer sales) when the NGO sales landed between 71 and 889 in a single month, averaging 400 NGO sales in a month. Overall, 14 districts showed decreased customer sales in the presence of subsidies, and 36 districts showed increased customer sales in the presence of subsidies. Within this study, any district with over 395 sales in one month showed a decline in customer sales. There were 106 months within this project that the NGO and customer sales had a positive correlation and 110 months showing a negative correlation.

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