Willingness to Pay for Water Quality and Supply Enhancements in the Grand River Watershed

Abstract

This paper reports the results of a large contingent valuation survey to estimate the social benefits of water quality improvements in the watershed. Early results indicate a willingness to pay (WTP) for residential water quality improvements of up to $4.50 per household per month (19% of the average water bill), with a somewhat lower value for preserving the environmental quality of parkland in the watershed. Using a 5% discount rate, this translates into a demand for water quality projects in the region with a capital value of nearly 91100 per household. The narrowness of the estimated range of WTP values, and their similarity to values found in other studies, suggests that our estimates are a reliable measure of the monetary value of social benefits from water quality improvements in the region. The main socioeconomic determinants of willingness to pay appear to be household income, number of children, perception of existing water quality, and awareness of environmental issues on the part of survey respondents. R6sum6 Cet article est un rapport pr6liminaire d'une vaste enqu6te sur la valorisation contingente auprds des habitants du bassin hydrographique de la riviere Grand au sud-ouest de Toronto. Ce sondage visait a estimer les avantages sociaux qui r6sulteraient des am6liorations de la qualit6 de l,eau du bassin. Les r6sultats p16liminaires indiquent qu'il parait que les enquot6s paient volontiers le prix d'am6liorer la qualit6 de l'eau potable, jusqu'd 4,509 par m6nage par mois (c,estd-dire 19% de la facture moyenne), et un prix quelque peu moins 6lev6 pour pr6server la qualit6 6cologique des parcs et des bois du bassin; ce qut, en utilisant un taux d'escompte de 5,k, se traduit dans la secteur d,enouOte en une demande des projets pour ameliorer la qualit6 d'eau d'une valeur du capital de presque 1100$ par m6nage. L'6troitesse de l'6tendue estim6e des valeurs de la bonne volont6 de payer et leur ressemblance avec les valeurs trouv6es dans d'autres recherches suggdrent que nos estimations donnent un mesure fiable de la valeur mon6taire des avantages sociaux qui r6sultent de l'am6lioration de la qualit6 de I'eau dans la r6gion. Les d6terminants principaux socio-6conomiques de la bonne volont6 de payer de la parl des enquot6s semblent 6tre: le revenu, le num6ro d'enfants, la perception de la qualit6 actuelle de l,eau, et la conscrence des questions 6cologiques. 1) Introduction This paper is a report on an attempt to Heritage River with the largest, urbanized measure willingness to pay (wTP) for watershed in southern ontario, draining water quality improvements in the Grand an area of approximately 7,000 km'z with River watershed. From a national perspeca population of over 600,000. The retive, the watershed is a relatively small gion's manufacturing base has eroded ecosystem , but it is also a canadian under industrial 'restructurino.'but the

Economic value of conserving river water quality: results from a contingent valuation survey in Yamuna river basin, India

“…Similarly Brox et al (1996) have conducted a survey for evaluating the WTP for water quality as well as supply enhancements in '' Theoretically, in both cases, there is a decrease in the utility for a respondent owing to reduction in water quality or water pollution and, therefore, both of them should correspond to the equivalence of compensating and equivalent variation. Here it refers to both compensating equal to equivalent variation Irrespective of the recipient, there should be a transfer of money equivalent to the cost of pollution, which is hypothetical when property rights are well laid out.…”

The estimation of ecosystem services' value in the region of Misi Rural Development Project: Results from a contingent valuation survey

“…In another study, Carson and Mitchell (1993) distinguished demand for water quality under various uses to value demands for each use by conducting WTP surveys. Similarly Brox et al (1996) conducted a survey for evaluating the WTP for water quality as well as supply enhancements in Grand River watershed by including both quantitative and qualitative dimensions in the study. While the CVM procedure tries to maximum WTP amount per household, investigation can be conducted to identify contributions of relevant items such as respondent's income levels, education, age, gender, cultural background, tastes, familiarity level etc.…”

Who Wants to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions?

“…Elliott, Seldon, and Regens (1997), however, concluded that individuals' support for environmental spending varies both with the state of the economy and with personal economic circumstances. Contingent valuation studies (e.g., Brox, Kumar, and Stollery, 1996) generally have found that willingness to pay for specific environmental amenities increases with income. The Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) found support for both the significance and the insignificance of income in a 1998 survey on climate change:…”