payment for the utility to be able to provide quality service and avoid disconnection. Utility staff followed a specific script loaded onto a tablet during each visit to ensure uniformity in intervention delivery (see appendix). This intervention took place during September and October of 2018 after the initial awareness campaign described above.

The second approach applied contract enforcement of the disconnection policy for nonpaying property owners. Compounds in payment arrears were given official notification that they had to make payment, or their services would be disconnected.<sup>17</sup> This intervention included the following steps to ensure enforcement was targeted, transparent, fair and credible: _Targeting_ : Among disconnection-eligible property owners in treatment areas, a tighter selection rule was applied than the official policy to target those in significant arrears. Disconnection eligibility was determined by the number of months a property owner had not paid, and the outstanding balance. This differed slightly by settlement. All property owners needed to have an outstanding consumption balance of more than US$ 25, or around six months of consumption charges for the average compound. This typically meant that they would also be behind in paying their service connection loan. In addition, property owners in two settlements where the program had first started operating needed to have missed at least the past three months of service payments, while property owners in the remaining settlements needed to have missed at least one month of service payment. The average service balance among those presented with a disconnection notice was US$ 76 or around 18 months of the average consumption bill.

_Transparency_ : Property owners were contacted by utility community-development agents, or CDAs, a minimum of five times over a four-month period to alert them about their arrears and eligibility for disconnection. Communication campaigns were designed by sociologists employed by the utility that had been working in the study settlements for many years and had long-term relationships with community leaders.<sup>18</sup> The communication started with the awareness phone call from the utility in August/September 2018. This was followed in October/November 2018 by a notice posted to the compound door and next to the water point warning property owners of disconnection if payment is not made by a specified deadline and providing a contact number for coordinating a payment arrangement or disputing the

> 17The study was designed specifically to measure the impacts of tenant engagement and disconnection policy enforcement. Of course, these two options are not exhaustive and there may be other policy avenues that could be more effective. In fact, the government considered a broader set of options before ultimately settling on studying engagement and enforcement.

> 18These sociologists had also been responsible for leading regular community meetings prior to, and during the infrastructure construction activities, and worked with the CDAs to deliver general awareness campaigns on how to effectively utilize the upgraded water and sanitation facilities. This meant that the utility had a daily presence in the settlements through the CDAs, and this was the primary route of communication between the utility and communities.

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