The choice of water for use by residential households is usually limited to the centralized and more regulated piped water or the decentralized and less regulated groundwater sources. Many households secure access to water through self-supply from groundwater sources, consequently putting the resource at risk. Our analysis shows empirical evidence on the determinants of households’ choice of water-supply sources and suggests a high substitution threshold for piped water and self-supplied groundwater in South Africa. Furthermore, we provide insights into the potential welfare impact of a stylized piped water tariff change that reduces prices and leads to increased piped water choices.

Remittances to Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) constitute a critical lifeline for millions of individual households. It is on record that these large transfers enable recipient households to raise their living standards beyond vulnerability and subsistence levels. Unfortunately, the development potentials of remittance income are seldom factored into most pro-poor targeting programmes in many SSA countries like Nigeria. This is largely due to the problems of data inconsistency as well as those related to lack of precise information on how remittances are received and spent. Using novel survey dataset involving 450 remittance recipient and non-recipient households collected in the Southeast Geopolitical Zone of Nigeria, the study uncovers significant evidence of the impact of remittances on household expenditure and povertyusingpropensityscore matching (PSM). Specifically, households that receive remittances invest between NGN186,000 (US$1,240) and NGN205,000 (US$1,366.7) more in building constructions, land acquisitions and also invest over NGN60,000 (US$400) more in household business enterprise compared to non-recipient households. Similarly, the estimated impact of remittances on poverty shows that household poverty is lower by between 30.3% and 33.6% considering the results from all the three PSM matching estimators. The differences between the recipients and non-recipients are statistically significant. The implications of the findings are discussed in terms of pro-poor targeting programmes in Nigeria.

The 2018 water crisis in Cape Town, South Africa, captured the attention of international media outlets as the city faced the possibility of running out of water. Examining this media provides an opportunity to understand the framing of the water crisis, which can provide valuable insights into what society and policymakers consider important. Media analysis can also examine the framing of the impacts of the crisis; with strong interlinkages between food, energy, and water resources, the water crisis directly impacted other resource sectors. To explore the media perspective on the crisis and its impacts across the food and energy sectors, the research here uses content analysis to analyze news articles about the water crisis. We analyze the framing of the problems and solutions to the water crisis and the framing of food-energy-water nexus interactions and impacts. Our results show that the media framed the water crisis as being caused by drought, politics, poor management, and overuse of water, while it presented the proposed solutions of reducing demand and increasing water supply through technological solutions. Additionally, the media framing shows a major impact of the water crisis on the agriculture sector and a strong reliance on energy-intensive technical solutions to address the water crisis, suggesting potential unintended consequences within the food and energy sectors without direct consideration of their intersections. We conclude that the media framing may suggest a mismatch between causes and solutions, as the media rarely presented improving governance and management as potential solutions, yet identified poor governance as a cause of the crisis.

The South African wine industry has recently launched the world's first ‘no sulphite added' wine made from indigenous Rooibos & Honeybush toasted wood chips. This wood chip contains antioxidant properties known to protect wine from oxidation. On the other hand, SO2 as a preservative, is often perceived by wine consumers as causing headaches and migraines. Differentiated wines based on their SO2 content may be a profi table marketing avenue for the struggling industry. We interviewed more than 600 wine consumers to investigate their perceptions of wine preservatives and preference for several wine attributes. Specifically, we use discrete choice experiments to elicit willingness to pay for the innovative alternative based on Rooibos & Honeybush wood chips. In addition to wine preservatives, we also examine consumers' preferences for organic wine attributes and wine quality measured by a 100-point quality score and cost. Based on the results from the mixed logit model, we find that consumers are willing to pay an additional €3.53 (R56.48) per bottle of wine with natural Rooibos & Honeybush wood chips, while they are ready to pay €1.22 (R19.52) more for organic wine and €0.10 (R1.60) for each point on the quality score. Consumer preferences are not statistically different between red and white wine but differ considerably across consumers. In particular, those who believe SO2 in wine causes headaches are willing to pay at least three times more for replacing sulphur-based preservatives with a natural one. Marketing implications are offered for the wine industry.