
Willingness to pay for improved safe drinking water in a coastal urban area in Bangladesh.
Category:- Journal; Year:- 2021
Discipline:- Economics Discipline
School:- Social Science School
Abstract
Discontentment with a piped supply system of drinking water
has become a significant concern in Bangladesh's urban areas in recent years,
necessitating the improvement of different aspects of the system in question.
Therefore, by conducting a discrete choice experiment on 115 households out of
a systematically selected 161 households, this study aims to estimate the
willingness to pay (WTP) for an improved safe drinking water supply by
considering the trade-offs made by urban dwellers for the proposed improvements
to an existing water supply system in the Khulna City Corporation (KCC) area of
Bangladesh. The primary results show that the total WTP of households is
estimated at BDT 243.6 (≈US$ 2.87) per month, implying that respondents are
ready to pay for improvements to the water supply attributes of water quality,
regularity of supply, water pressure in taps, and filtering. A revenue stream for
an improved water supply system is also being developed, suggesting that
investment in improving the system would be a ‘no-regret’ decision and
economically sustainable.