Abstract
With increasing water supply accidents and higher water demand, urban water supply safety (WSS) remains a crucial public policy issue in developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumers’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) and their preferences to improve WSS in China, to support governments in water regulation policy design and water providers in investment-decisions. A discrete choice experiment method with the consideration of not only attributes of WSS but also attitudinal and demographic variables have been adopted to assess consumers’ WTP and preferences for WSS improvement. The results show that Chinese urban residents are willing to pay a significantly higher price for improved WSS. Demonstrated marginal mean WTP for the change of the attributes range from 0.18 RMB/m3 (0.03 USD/m3) (1 RMB was around 0.154 USD in 2016) for decreased water supply interruption to 2.33 Yuan RMB/m3 (0.35 USD/m3) for improved drinking water quality. Investments in water processing facilities and water distribution networks should come first. Cross-subsidy concerning different developing districts is the most efficient policy instrument. The study contributes to the recent literature not only by introducing attitudinal variables in choice experiment survey in water supply field, but also by revealing the correlation of choice modeling applications in WSS improvement programs.
Highlights
While drinking water supply may be gradually popularizing worldwide, for many developing and less developed countries, water supply safety is still the fundamental concern [1]
This study clarified the value of water supply safety improvement in Shenzhen, China
The attributes of water supply safety improvement have been quantified so that they can be utilized for justification of Water supply safety (WSS) improvement programs in similar cities of China
Summary
While drinking water supply may be gradually popularizing worldwide, for many developing and less developed countries, water supply safety is still the fundamental concern [1]. The new one makes stricter demand on organics, microorganisms and disinfection This is the first time a developing country has implemented strict regulations on drinking-water quality and the first time the same standards have been applied in rural and urban areas in China) several Chinese water companies are having difficulties in meeting the new standards due to the outdated treatment facilities and distribution networks [2]. Wang et al [2] developed a game theoretical model between government and a water company to analyze the strategy for improving water supply safety. This study is designed to conduct a comprehensive exploration of consumers’ willingness-to-pay and preferences to improve WSS by following and seeking to contribute to previous studies on water supply management. The research questions in this paper include: (1) What is the mean WTP to improve WSS? (2) What are the main factors influencing consumers’ WTP? (3) What are the implications for stakeholders and decision-makers of this estimate? The answers to these research questions are beneficial to local and central governments for future water regulation policy design as well as water providers for investment decisions
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