Expanding rainwater harvesting provides a low-cost way to advance poverty reduction and climate adaptation
Access to clean water is fundamental for both health and economic opportunity. Yet millions of families in rural areas around the world still lack it. As climate change makes droughts and water shortages more frequent, ensuring safe access to water has become even more urgent.
In Brazil’s semi-arid region, one of the most climate-vulnerable areas on the planet, water scarcity is a daily challenge. Many families must walk long distances every day to collect water, often from unsafe sources. This exposes them to health risks and leaves less time for work, education, or childcare.
To confront this problem, the Brazilian government launched the First Water Cistern (FWC) program in 2003. The program installed nearly one million household rainwater-harvesting cisterns, giving rural families a reliable supply of safe drinking water right at home.
Our new IZA Discussion Paper follows more than 600,000 individuals over 14 years to assess the long-term effects of this initiative. By comparing households that received cisterns earlier with those that received them later, we identify how improved access to clean water changed people’s lives.
The results are striking. Within ten years of installation, families with cisterns were 34% less likely to depend on Bolsa Família, Brazil’s main cash-transfer program for low-income households. Adults in these families were 15% more likely to hold formal jobs and earned around 20% higher formal wages a decade after receiving a cistern. Health also improved: hospitalizations caused by waterborne diseases fell by 16% among adults and by 37% among children.
These gains were strongest among groups with higher earning potential, such as men and more educated workers, and were largely driven by new formal jobs created outside beneficiaries’ home towns. Importantly, households with young children benefited the most, suggesting that saving time previously spent collecting water played a key role in these improvements.
These findings highlight the broader economic benefits of water infrastructure in climate-vulnerable regions. By reducing health risks and freeing up time previously spent collecting water, cisterns improve well-being and unlock economic development. The effects were especially pronounced among households facing tighter time constraints, such as those with young children, suggesting that releasing time from water collection was a relevant mechanism for the cistern-driven economic gains.
Overall, our findings show that investing in basic water infrastructure can yield large and lasting benefits, not only for public health but also for income and employment in climate-vulnerable regions. Providing clean water reduces illness, frees time, and helps households participate more fully in the economy.
As climate change intensifies, expanding access to safe water through rainwater-harvesting systems offers a cost-effective way to promote both poverty reduction and climate adaptation. Our cost-benefit analysis shows that cisterns deliver an exceptionally high return on public investment compared with many other social programs.
© Yuri Barreto, Diogo Britto, Bladimir Carrillo, Daniel Da Mata, Lucas Emanuel, and Breno Sampaio
Yuri Barreto is Researcher at Bocconi University, Italy
Diogo Britto is Assistant Professor at Bocconi University, Italy, and IZA Research Fellow
Bladimir Carrillo is Associate Professor at Sao Paulo School of Economics – FGV, Brazil
Daniel Da Mata is Associate Professor at Sao Paulo School of Economics – FGV, Brazil
Lucas Emanuel is Associate Professor of Economics at the Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brazil
Breno Sampaio is Associate Professor at Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Brazil, and IZA Research Fellow
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We recognize that IZA World of Labor articles may prompt discussion and possibly controversy. Opinion pieces, such as the one above, capture ideas and debates concisely, and anchor them with real-world examples. Opinions stated here do not necessarily reflect those of the IZA.
Related IZA World of Labor content:
https://wol.iza.org/articles/the-labor-market-in-brazil by Sergio Pinheiro Firpo and Alysson Lorenzon Portella
https://wol.iza.org/articles/climate-change-and-the-allocation-of-time by Marie Connolly
https://wol.iza.org/articles/climate-change-natural-disasters-and-migration by Linguère Mously Mbaye and Assi Okara
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