Many South African schools struggle to maintain their water systems, particularly in the water-constrained Western Cape province, where the so-called “Day Zero” drought had intensified the urgency of saving water and increased the cost of supply. The problem is compounded by insufficient governmental funding, the lack of well-structured government policies, and a shortage of skilled maintenance staff at the schools. We evaluate the impact of a plumbing maintenance drive at 196 schools at the apex of the drought.

This paper experimentally investigates the impact of different information sharing mechanisms in a common-pool resource game, with a view to finding a mechanism that is both efficient and inexpensive for the managing agency. More precisely, we compare the observed extraction levels produced as a result of three mechanisms: a mandatory information sharing mechanism and two voluntary information sharing mechanisms that differ in the degree of freedom given to the players.

Abstract