Poverty

====Water and sanitation====
As of 2012, 2.5 billion people lack access to sanitation services and 15% practice [[open defecation]].<ref>WHO and UNICEF [https://web.archive.org/web/20120328173008/http://www.wssinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/resources/JMP-report-2012-en.pdf ''Progress on Drinking-water and Sanitation: 2012 Update''], WHO, Geneva and UNICEF, New York, p. 2</ref> Even while providing latrines is a challenge, people still do not use them even when available. Bangladesh had half the GDP per capita of India but has a lower mortality from diarrhea than India or the world average, with diarrhea deaths declining by 90% since the 1990s. By strategically providing pit latrines to the poorest, charities in Bangladesh sparked a cultural change as those better off perceived it as an issue of status to not use one. The vast majority of the latrines built were then not from charities but by villagers themselves.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/asia/2018/03/22/how-bangladesh-vanquished-diarrhoea|title=How Bangladesh vanquished diarrhoea|newspaper=The Economist|access-date=18 August 2018|date=22 March 2018|archive-date=19 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180819083112/https://www.economist.com/asia/2018/03/22/how-bangladesh-vanquished-diarrhoea|url-status=live}}</ref>

Water utility subsidies tend to subsidize water consumption by those connected to the supply grid, which is typically skewed towards the richer and urban segment of the population and those outside informal housing. As a result of heavy consumption subsidies, the price of water decreases to the extent that only 30%, on average, of the supplying costs in developing countries is covered.<ref name=Kenny/><ref name=utilitysubsidy>{{cite book
| year=2005
| first1=Kristin
| last1=Komives
| first2=Vivien
| last2=Foster
| first3=Jonathan
| last3=Halpern
| first4=Quentin
| last4=Wodon
| title=Water, Electricity and the Poor: Who benefits from utility subsidies?
| url=http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTWSS/Resources/Figures.pdf
| publisher=The World Bank
| location=Washington, DC
| isbn=978-0-8213-6342-3
| access-date=26 July 2012
| archive-date=16 December 2011
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111216141018/http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTWSS/Resources/Figures.pdf
| url-status=live
}}</ref>
This results in a lack of incentive to maintain delivery systems, leading to losses from leaks annually that are enough for 200 million people.<ref name=Kenny/><ref>{{cite book
| year=2006
| first1=Bill
| last1=Kingdom
| first2=Roland
| last2=Liemberger
| first3=Philippe
| last3=Marin
| title=The challenge of reducing non-revenue water (NRW) in developing countries. How the private sector can help: A look at performance-based service contracting
| series=Water supply and sanitation board discussion paper series
| url=http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTWSS/Resources/WSS8fin4.pdf
| publisher=The World Bank
| location=Washington, DC
| access-date=26 July 2012
| archive-date=23 May 2012
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120523132225/http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTWSS/Resources/WSS8fin4.pdf
| url-status=live
}}</ref>
This also leads to a lack of incentive to invest in expanding the network, resulting in much of the poor population being unconnected to the network. Instead, the poor buy water from water vendors for, on average, about 5 to 16 times the metered price.<ref name=Kenny/><ref>{{cite book
 |year            = 2006
 |first1         = Marianne
 |last1         = Kjellen
 |first2         = Gordon
 |last2         = McGranahan
 |name-list-style = amp
 |title           = Informal Water Vendors and the Urban Poor
 |series          = Human settlements discussion paper series
 |url             = http://pubs.iied.org/pdfs/10529IIED.pdf
 |publisher       = [[International Institute for Environment and Development|IIED]]
 |location        = London
 |isbn            = 978-1-84369-586-8
 |access-date     = 26 July 2012
 |archive-date    = 4 September 2012
 |archive-url     = https://web.archive.org/web/20120904224113/http://pubs.iied.org/pdfs/10529IIED.pdf
 |url-status      = live
}}</ref> However, subsidies for laying new connections to the network rather than for consumption have shown more promise for the poor.<ref name=utilitysubsidy/>