Willingness to Pay for Water Quality Improvement of Mayur River in Khulna

Abstract

Bangladesh is experiencing serious river water contamination problems as a result of industrialization, urbanization, and poor waste management techniques. It is causing great harm to human being and environment. The Mayur river in Khulna is one of the most polluted rivers in Bangladesh. So, this study tries to figure out the willingness to pay (WTP) and the factors influencing the WTP for an improvement of river water quality of the people associated with the Mayur river. Information of 198 respondents from four different areas which are Shonadanga, Gollamari, Mohammadnagar and Sachibunia of Khulna district are analyzed in this study. In light of the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM), a double bounded dichotomous choice model is used to discover the influential factors of respondents’ WTP. Eighty three percent of the respondents said they would like to take part in the Mayur river water quality improvement program. Even if the respondents' preferences for improving the quality of the water show variability, the majority of them agreed to implement improvement scenario 3 from the four improvement scenarios presented to them. The mostly preferred scenario consists of the second highest improvements of river related attributes among the four scenarios. Out of all, the respondents' years of schooling, monthly household income and living distance from the river are the variables that have effect to the change in WTP for improvement program. The mean WTP of the respondents is around BDT 312 but socially and economically optimal tariff rate is BDT 300 according to the interaction of high revenue generation and a good proportion of accepting the offered bid. Just a few of the respondents expressed protest responses and genuine zero responses against this water quality improvement program. This study finds that majority of the respondents are willing to improve the river water with an affordable cost. The study also suggests creating different tariff rates for different income ranges and campaign for widespread awareness to ensure more participation in this program.

Key Words:

Willingness to Pay, River Water Pollution, River Water Quality Improvement, Contingent Valuation Method, Mayur River

Q50, Q51, Q53

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