# **Table 5.3: Time devoted to collection of fuel wood and water according to whether or not the household has access to modern water and energy services**

||||Nat<br>|ional<br>|U<br>|By <br>rban<br>|area<br>R<br>|ural<br>|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Access to modern services|||Y|N|Y|N|Y|N|||
|Proportion of households who collect|ed yest|erday|||||||||
|•<br>Fuel wood|||.04|.18|.01|.11|.08|.19|||
|•<br>Water|||.03|.33|.02|.22|.05|.35|||
|No. of minutes spent collecting yeste<br>•<br>Fuel wood|rday||102<br>|162<sup>***</sup><br><sup>***</sup>|77<br>|173<sup>***</sup><br><sup>***</sup>|121<br>|161<sup>***</sup><br><sup>***</sup>|||
|•<br>Water|||63|96|62|75|64|99|||
|Expected no. of minutes per week spe<br>•<br>Fuel wood<br>•<br>Water|nt coll|ecting|29<br>13|204<sup>***</sup><br>221<sup>***</sup>|5<br>9|133<sup>***</sup><br>116<sup>***</sup>|68<br>22|214<sup>***</sup><br>243<sup>***</sup>|||
|<br>|||||By q|uintile<br>|||||
|||1||2||3||4||5|
|Access to modern services|Y|N|Y|N|Y|N|Y|N|Y|N|
|Proportion of households who collected yesterday|||||||||||
|•<br>Fuel wood|.16|.19|.06|.18|.09|.18|.04|.14|.01|.10|
|•<br>Water|.03|.35|.04|.37|.06|.35|.02|.31|.01|.24|
|No of minutes sent collectin esterda|||||||||||
|. p g yy<br>•<br>Fuel wood|na|202<br>|154|165<br>|94|99|72|107|na|86|
|•<br>Water|82|127<sup>**</sup>|65|93<sup>**</sup>|70|76|50|57|21|84|
|Expected no. of minutes per week spent collecting<br>•<br>Fuel wood<br>•<br>Water|na<br>17|268<br>311<sup>***</sup>|208<br>18|65<sup>***</sup><br>242<sup>***</sup>|59<br>29|124<sup>***</sup><br>185<sup>***</sup>|20<br>7|105<sup>***</sup><br>124<sup>***</sup>|na<br>1|62<br>141<sup>***</sup>|

na: Less than 30 observations were available.

_Notes_ : A modern water service is defined as having piped water in the dwelling or yard. A modern energy service is defined as having access to propane.

Percentage of households with and without service are significantly different at:<sup>***</sup> 99%,<sup>**</sup> 95% and<sup>*</sup> 90%. Expected minutes = 7 * proportion who collected yesterday * minutes spent collecting.

_Source:_ World Bank calculations using the ENCOVI 2000, Instituto Nacional de Estadística – Guatemala Clearly, one of the potential benefits of providing households with access to piped water and modern energy sources, such as propane, is that they can save the time that would otherwise be devoted to collection activities. Using the ENCOVI data, it is possible to estimate the number of minutes per week that households spend on average collecting fuel wood and water, and to compare this between households that have access to modern alternatives and those that do not (Table 5.9). In urban areas, households without access to modern utilities spend on average two man-hours per week on each of the two collection activities, while those who have access spend less than ten minutes per week on each. In rural areas, households with access spend closer to four man-hours per week on each activity. However, even those with services spend a significant amount of time collecting fuel wood and water. This may be a reflection of the lower reliability of these services in rural areas. Consequently, the time saving for rural households who gain access to modern services is 2.5 hours per week for fuel wood and 3.5 hours per week for water.

Although it is difficult to place an economic value on these time savings, an approximate indication can be obtained from the average hourly earnings of rural workers in the agricultural sector, which are of the order of Q.3-4 (US$0.50) (Vakis, 2001). This would suggest that the value of weekly time savings associated with piped water could be around Q.12 (US$1.75), compared with a typical weekly piped water bill of Q.3 nationwide, or less than Q.1 in rural areas. The implication is that households who are not cash constrained would find it attractive to switch to a piped service. Although, the benefits are 38