Consumer ability and willingness to pay more for continuous municipal water supply in Chitungwiza

Abstract

Intermittent water supply has become a new challenge in many developing countries as water utilities are implementing stern water rationing to compensate the shortages. In these regions, provision of water is mainly through public utilities that lack capital to invest in water systems to achieve continuous water supply. The systems are financed through consumer rate paying which in most cases are not consistent due to unreliable water supply. This study investigates whether providing continuous water supply to households in Chitungwiza could facilitate willingness to pay (WTP) as part of cost recovery by the water utility for the increased investment needed to achieve sustainable 24/7 supply. A contingent valuation method (CVM) was used to evaluate consumer WTP more for an improved continuous municipal water supply service in Chitungwiza. A Multiple Bounded Discrete Choice (MBDC) survey was conducted on 298 households in the four zones of Chitungwiza. Only 28.9% households were willing to pay the hypothesised prices for improved 24/7 water supply. This indicates a very low WTP rate of the proposed 24/7 water supply prices. Residents are willing to pay $40/month for improved services against the $75/month proposed in this paper for improved services. Binary logistic regression model using consumer WTP odds’ ratios established that the presence of alternative water source to municipal water and education level of the household head significantly determined consumer WTP for improved water services in Chitungwiza. Reasons for a strong non-willingness to pay were lack of trust, poor water quality supply, economic challenges and poor maintenance of the water system.