Willingness to pay and willingness to work for improvements of municipal and community‐managed water services

Abstract

This study investigates household preferences, in labor time and monetary terms, for improved water services in Guatemala using sequential contingent valuation questions. The household survey was implemented in areas served by municipal and community-managed systems, which allows for comparing household preferences under those governance approaches. Results show that respondents with municipal services are willing to pay a substantial increase (more than 200%) in their water bills for reliable supplies of safe drinking water. They are also willing to work approximately 19 h per month for such improved services when labor hours are proposed as the payment vehicle. In contrast, households with community-managed services are not willing to pay or work for service improvements, even though they report to be quite dissatisfied with current services. Policy implications are discussed.

Socio-Hydrological Modelling to Assess Reliability of an Urban Water System under Formal-Informal Supply Dynamics

“…The value for the middle-income group was used in the model, as the middle-income group constituted the major proportion of the total population [13]. An average monthly income value of USD 250 (PKR 25,000) was used to model the real income growth using Equation (6), with an inflation rate of 6% [35]. Informal water demand per HH per month (9.04 m 3 ) was obtained for the year 2016-2017 by Imad [13] used as the baseline value to simulate future possible growth in informal demand for the years 2017-2107.…”

“…Formal water supply systems (FWSSs), i.e., piped water supply managed by water utilities, are failing to meet consumer demands for the reliable service of high-quality water [5]. This has given rise to increasing mistrust from consumers, contributing to lower water tariff recovery rates (R T ) of FWSSs [6]. While informal water supply has emerged as a coping mechanism enabling users to deal with uncertain water supply [7], it has also contributed concomitant negative feedbacks to the financial sustainability of FWSSs, which further feeds back in to a vicious cycle of poor performance in formal water system [8].…”

“…A key breakdown within the system is the inability of policymakers to update water tariffs because of consumers' low willingness to pay [13]. Consumers may not be willing to pay water tariffs due to low performance of the utilities [6]. The situation triggers further processes, such as increased payments, to cope with unreliable water supply [3].…”

Valuing water supply infrastructure improvements using life satisfaction data as a complement to contingent valuation

“…The abundant literature that has applied the contingent valuation method (CVM) in the particular context of urban water supply infrastructure can be grouped into three main categories. First, studies aimed at valuing improvements in the water supply infrastructure such as guaranteeing the continuity of the service or improving the organoleptic properties of water (Akram and Olmstead, 2011; Vásquez, 2014; del Saz‐Salazar et al , 2015; Van Houtven et al , 2017). Second, studies that go a step further as the monetary values obtained are used in a cost‐benefit framework, such as the research conducted by Molinos‐Senante et al (2011) and Genius et al (2012).…”

Contingent valuation and rural potable water systems: A critical look at the past and future

“…Although the variables chosen varied greatly between studies, a number of relatively consistent results emerged. Ojeda, Mayer, and Solomon (), Ogunniyi et al (), Bogale and Urgessa (), Almendarez‐Hernández et al (), Vásquez (), and Amoah () found youth to be positively correlated with a higher willingness to pay estimate. Mbata (), Farolfi et al (), Ogunniyi et al (), Bogale and Urgessa (), and Almendarez‐Hernández et al () found that females expressed a higher willingness to pay than males.…”