Building Water Storage Cisterns in Brazil

From 2003-2017, the First Water Cistern (FWC) program built over one million rain-fed water storage cisterns across Brazil’s semi-arid region, a poor rural area historically affected by recurring droughts. The FWC program aimed to combat water scarcity and health risks associated with unsafe water consumption. The cisterns were delivered to families registered in the Brazilian federal government’s centralized welfare registry (CadUnico), and priority was given to those: (i) with low per capita income; (ii) headed by women; (iii) with a large number of children under age six or school-age children; (iv) with people with special needs and (v) with elderly people.

Barreto et al (2025) uses 4 main datasets; 1) the FWC program data including cistern build date and household information, 2) individual level data from the CadUnico welfare registry, 3) Bolsa Familia cash transfers which tracts cash transfers to families living below the poverty line, and 4) employer-employee data from RAIS. In order to identify the causal effects of the FWC policy, the paper uses a difference-in-differences design by leveraging the staggered timing in cistern delivery. The paper uses a control group composed of not-yet-treated households, while focusing on effects for up to 10 years post treatment.