Poor Economics: Rethinking Poverty & the Ways to End it

by Abhijit V. Banerjee

Yet neither chlorine nor ORS is used very much. In Zambia, thanks to the efforts of Population Service International (PSI), a large organization that markets it at subsidized prices worldwide, chlorine is cheap and widely available. At the cost of 800 kwachas ($0.18 USD PPP), a family of six can buy enough bleach to purify its water supply, avoiding waterborne diarrhea. But only 10 percent of families use it.2 In India, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), only one-third of children under five who had diarrhea were given ORS.3 Why are some 1.5 million children dying every year of diarrhea, a disease that could often be avoided in the first place, and could often be treated with boiled water, sugar, and salt?