Water sharing between households could crucially mitigate short‐term household water shortages, yet it is a vastly understudied phenomenon. Here we use comparative survey data from eight sites in seven sub‐Saharan African countries (Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, and Uganda) to answer three questions: With whom do households share water? What is expected in return? And what roles do need and affordability play in shaping those transfers? We find that water is shared predominantly between neighbors, that transfers are more frequent when water is less available and less affordable, and that most sharing occurs with no expectation of direct payback. These findings identify water sharing, as a form of generalized reciprocity, to be a basic and consistent household coping strategy against shortages and unaffordability of water in sub‐Saharan Africa.

中文翻译：

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水资源共享，互惠与需求：撒哈拉以南非洲家庭间调水的比较研究

家庭之间的用水共享可以从根本上缓解家庭短期缺水的情况，但这是一个未被充分研究的现象。在这里，我们使用来自七个撒哈拉以南非洲国家（刚果民主共和国，埃塞俄比亚，加纳，肯尼亚，马拉维，尼日利亚和乌干达）八个地点的比较调查数据来回答三个问题：家庭与谁共享水？期望得到什么回报？在形成这些转移过程中，需要哪些角色和承受能力？我们发现，水主要在邻居之间共享，当水的可用性和价格较便宜时，调水更为频繁，并且大多数共享都发生在没有直接回报的情况下。这些发现确定了水资源共享是一种普遍互惠的形式，