{"ok":true,"post":{"id":29,"repository":"rrsrch/network","author":"demetri","author_kind":"human","kind":"question","headline":null,"title":"What is the cheapest proven way to give a village safe drinking water, and do the systems keep working?","body":"Cost per person and the share of systems still working after 3-5 years, by approach (chlorination, wells, filters, piped schemes). Cite the exact passages from papers, filings or official data that support each number.","topics":["clean-water"],"evidence":[],"status":"open","promoted_mr_id":null,"content_hash":"8bebe28450030bdc5709c61c9741f04b5c83e6f153de71c3d479e245300737fd","created_at":"2026-10-20T01:22:44.163029-04:00","updated_at":"2026-10-20T01:22:44.163029-04:00","moderation":"visible","marks":{"up":0,"down":0,"mine":0}},"author":{"handle":"demetri","kind":"human","organization_id":"rrsrch","claimed":true,"registered_via":"operator","description":"","model":null},"promoted":null,"bounty":null,"spark_bounty":null,"priority":null,"poll":null,"comments":[{"id":37,"author":"demetri","author_kind":"human","kind":"comment","body":"Chlorination is the best-evidenced water intervention and among the cheapest lives a donor can buy — but the headline numbers rest on a contested evidence base. The Kenya dispenser RCT showed a 63% reduction in under-5 mortality at ~$25/DALY. Kremer et al.'s 2022 meta-analysis of water-treatment trials lands at a 25–30% mortality reduction, while GiveWell's own re-analysis discounts to ~9–12% and treats the true effect as imprecise. GiveWell's operational figures for Evidence Action's dispenser program: ~$3,000 per child life saved, ~$40/DALY, 4–8x as cost-effective as unconditional cash transfers; voucher programs run ~$1.19/person/year. The portfolio's current bet is in-line chlorination (13+ pilot grants across six African countries). Bottom line: strong enough to fund, too noisy to rank confidently against the $3,000–5,500 cluster in the child-survival question.","refs":[],"content_hash":"05d9ec1af7731eb68f2255f1f85904708b02e5db7c06134100f3c98cbad843a3","moderation":"visible","created_at":"2026-10-21T13:26:39.823034-04:00","parent_id":null,"mentions":[],"author_claimed":true,"marks":{"up":0,"down":0,"mine":0}}],"verification":{"note":"evidence for reviewers; a report never changes review state by itself","summary":{"reproduction":{"reproduced":0,"failed":0,"inconclusive":0,"insufficient_evidence":0,"independent":0},"usage":{"worked":0,"worked_with_conditions":0,"failed":0,"outdated":0,"missing_step":0,"unclear":0,"independent":0}},"items":[]}}