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The Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic (AICD) has produced continent-wide analysis of many aspects of Africa's infrastructure challenge. The main findings were synthesized in a flagship report titled Africa's Infrastructure: a time for transformation, published in November 2009. Meant for policy makers, that report necessarily focused on the high-level conclusions. It attracted widespread media coverage feeding directly into discussions at the 2009 African Union Commission Heads of State Summit on Infrastructure. Although the flagship report served a valuable role in highlighting the main findings of the project, it could not do full justice to the richness of the data collected and technical analysis undertaken. There was clearly a need to make this more detailed material available to a wider audience of infrastructure practitioners. Hence the idea of producing four technical monographs, such as this one, to provide detailed results on each of the major infrastructure sectors, information and communication technologies (ICT), power, transport, and water, as companions to the flagship report. These technical volumes are intended as reference books on each of the infrastructure sectors. They cover all aspects of the AICD project relevant to each sector, including sector performance, gaps in financing and efficiency, and estimates of the need for additional spending on investment, operations, and maintenance. Each volume also comes with a detailed data appendix, providing easy access to all the relevant infrastructure indicators at the country level, which is a resource in and of itself.

This study investigates the solute (chlorine residual) mixing phenomena downstream of a cross junction, considering its critical role in household connections. Experiments were conducted under turbulent flow conditions in a cross junction with two inlets at 90°, varying flow and chlorine concentration ratios at the inlets, i.e., simulating conditions commonly found in real water distribution systems. Results show that outlet chlorine concentrations primarily depend on the flow ratio at the inlets as well as on the inlet chlorine concentrations. Three-dimensional simulations were conducted to predict chlorine concentrations downstream of the cross junction. To evaluate the degree of downstream mixing, the percent coefficient of variation of tracer concentration (%CV) as a function of the axial position at different chlorine and flow ratios was computed from simulations. It was found that the flow ratio strongly affects it at downstream distances less than 50 pipe diameters, whereas the inlet chlorine concentration ratio has a weak effect. A novel correlation was derived as a function of flow ratio to ascertain the minimal distance for achieving the intended mixing level of %CV = 5 downstream of cross junctions. This correlation holds potential as a criterion for household connection location within water distribution networks for high-quality water delivery.

India has led the developing world in addressing rural energy problems. By late 2012, the national electricity grid had reached 92 percent of India s rural villages, about 880 million people. In more remote areas and those with geographically difficult terrain, where grid extension is not economically viable, off-grid solutions using renewable-energy sources for electricity generation and distribution have been promoted. The positive results of the country s rural energy policies and institutions have contributed greatly to reducing the number of people globally who remain without electricity access. Yet, owing mainly to its large population, India has by far the world s largest number of households without electricity. More than one-quarter of its population or about 311 million people, the vast majority of whom live in poorer rural areas, still lack an electricity connection; less than half of all households in the poorest income group have electricity. Among households with electricity service, hundreds of millions lack reliable power supply.

Metropolitan Taipei located in north Taiwan uses a hybrid sewer system consisting of mostly separate sewer for the populated regions, and partly combined sewer for less populated regions. This study used the concept that Marginal Cost of Control (MCC) equals to Marginal Benefits of Control (MBC) to establish the method for studying the optimal household connection percentage, and the most cost-effective construction of the separate sewer in the hybrid sewer system. Results indicate the improvement of the receiving water quality in a cost-effective analysis manner. The most cost-effective sanitary sewer construction can be reached when the stream Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD5) meets the river quality standard, which can be applied in other cities and existing systems.

“This book is an extremely thorough and readable review of how effective utility subsidies are in reaching the poor. It makes sobering reading for policy makers who have implemented such subsidy programmes, who are looking for ways to ameliorate heavy price increases, or who believed that these subsidies were useful instruments for alleviating poverty.” - Catherine Waddams, Director, Center for Competition PolicySchool of Management, University of East Anglia, United Kingdom “This study makes a fine contribution, theoretical and empirical, in an area where much nonsense has been preached, and many misconceptions have long been accepted as gospel. Analyzing a mass of material, the authors quantify the extent to which the most commonly applied forms of utility subsidies are regressive. And they then offer a range of practical measures that can be taken to correct the problem.”- John Nellis, Senior Fellow Center for Global Development, Washington, DC While consumer utility subsidies are widespread in both the water and electricity sectors, their effectiveness in reaching and distributing resources to the poor is the subject of much debate. Water, Electricity, and the Poor brings together empirical evidence on subsidy performance across a wide range of countries. It documents the prevalence of consumer subsidies, provides a typology of the many variants found in the developing world, and presents a number of indicators useful in assessing the degree to which such subsidies benefit the poor, focusing on three key concepts: beneficiary incidence, benefit incidence, and materiality. The findings on subsidy performance will be useful to policy makers, utility regulators, and sector practitioners who are contemplating introducing, eliminating, or modifying utility subsidies, and to those who view consumer utility subsidies as a social protection instrument.

The amount of available water has been constant for millennia, but over time the planet has added 6 billion people. Water is essential to human life and enterprise, and the increasing strains on available water resources threaten the mission of institutions dedicated to economic development. The ultimate goal is to achieve a sustainable balance between the resources available and the societal requirement for water. In this evaluation the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) examines all the water-related projects financed by the World Bank between fiscal 1997 and the end of calendar 2007. Bank activities related to water are large, growing, and integrated. They include water resources management, water supply and sanitation, and activities related to agricultural water, industrial water, energy generation, and water in the environment. Through both lending and grants, the World Bank (the International Development Association and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, or IBRD) has supported countries in many water-related sectors. This evaluation examines the full scope of that support over the period from fiscal 1997 to the end of calendar 2007. More than 30 background studies prepared for the evaluation have analyzed Bank lending by thematic area and by activity type. The evaluation is by definition retrospective, but it identifies changes that will be necessary going forward, including those related to strengthening country-level institutions and increasing financial sustainability.

The amount of available water has been constant for millennia, but over time the planet has added 6 billion people. Water is essential to human life and enterprise, and the increasing strains on available water resources threaten the mission of institutions dedicated to economic development. The ultimate goal is to achieve a sustainable balance between the resources available and the societal requirement for water. In this evaluation the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) examines all the water-related projects financed by the World Bank between fiscal 1997 and the end of calendar 2007. Bank activities related to water are large, growing, and integrated. They include water resources management, water supply and sanitation, and activities related to agricultural water, industrial water, energy generation, and water in the environment. Through both lending and grants, the World Bank (the International Development Association and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, or IBRD) has supported countries in many water-related sectors. This evaluation examines the full scope of that support over the period from fiscal 1997 to the end of calendar 2007. More than 30 background studies prepared for the evaluation have analyzed Bank lending by thematic area and by activity type. The evaluation is by definition retrospective, but it identifies changes that will be necessary going forward, including those related to strengthening country-level institutions and increasing financial sustainability.

Worldwide, refugees are increasingly living in uncertainty for undetermined periods of time, waiting for an enduring legal and social solution. In this article, I consider how this experience of waiting is perceived through and influenced by the ubiquity of transnational digital connections, which play a central role in Iraqi refugee households in Jordan. I draw on ethnographic fieldwork conducted among Iraqi refugees in Jordan’s capital Amman to further understand the use of digital technologies in everyday experiences of prolonged displacement. Waiting is an intrinsic affective phenomenon, colored by hope and anxiety. I argue that affective affordances—the potential of different media forms to bring about affects like hope and anxiety—enable Iraqi refugees to reorient themselves to particular places and people. As “no futures” are deemed possible in Jordan or Iraq, digital technologies serve as orientation devices enabling them to imagine futures elsewhere. Through the interplay of media forms, the Iraqi refugees refract their own lives via the experiences of friends and family members who have already traveled onward and who in their perception are able to rebuild a dignified life. Transnational digital connections not only provide a space for hope and optimistic ideas of futures elsewhere but also help to sustain one’s experience of immobility. I argue that using the imagination can be understood as an act of not giving in to structural constraints and might be crucial to making Iraqi refugee life in Jordan bearable.

We examine the significance and uniqueness of individual-pair relationships cultivated through repeated loan interactions. Using a hand-collected dataset compiled of borrowing manager and loan officer information, we find that individual-pair relationship loans are associated with a cost-of-debt reduction of between seven to 13 basis points. We also document that the relationship has an economic impact even when other affiliations, for example, institutional pairs, social ties, cultural proximity, and gender, are considered. Individual-pair relationships matter because they furnish lenders with useful soft information, especially when the firm has a poor hard information environment or when the bank and loan officer rely less on hard information. In addition, we find that individual-pair relationship loans have fewer rating downgrades, suggesting that accumulated soft information leads to better loan quality. Collectively, our results highlight the unique value of sustained professional engagement between two individuals in the lending process.

Purpose Given the growing prominence of voice-activated artificial intelligent devices (VAIs) as the strategic market-facing technology for grocery purchases, this article aims to bring together theories on anthropomorphism, trust, emotional attachment, self-connection and self-disclosure in one conceptual framework establishing that consumer–VAI relationship has significant implications for grocery purchase satisfaction and intention to repurchase using VAIs. Design/methodology/approach The study tested seven hypotheses through a survey-based approach comprising of two studies. Findings The study empirically supports VAI anthropomorphism and trust in VAIs as predictors of consumer–VAI emotional attachment and establishes the moderating role of consumer self-disclosure. Consumer–VAI self-connection resulting from emotional attachment results in grocery purchase satisfaction and intention to repurchase using VAIs. Research limitations/implications The article offers a novel perspective on consumer–VAI relationships and the use of VAIs for grocery purchases. It establishes an agentic role of consumers when ordering groceries using VAIs, creating a deeper understanding of how consumer–VAI emotional attachment results in extensions of consumers’ self-identity, resulting in purchase satisfaction and repurchase intention using VAIs. Practical implications Establishing a consumer–VAI relationship, the article brings out the strategic importance of VAIs for marketers in grocery purchases and repurchases, which can be extended to other purchases. Originality/value The article offers a new perspective on establishing VAIs as strategically important market-facing devices by examining consumer relationships with VAIs and offering valuable insights on how consumer emotional attachment with VAIs results in satisfaction and intention to repurchase using VAIs.