Abstract
This study aimed at identifying the most preferred water quality tracking system (WQTS) for adoption and the determining factors for the same among the Langata sub County households in Nairobi city, Kenya. Perrenial municipal water shortage in this neighborhood has forced the residents to depend on vended water supplication but whose quality is not possible to verify at the moment. Accordingly, a mobile phone quality tracing application running on blockchain technology platform was developed to fill the gap of provenance tracking. A non-market discrete choice experiments (DCEs) model was deployed in which four-option attribute bundles; with one being the “status quo” choice were presented to each of the 382 randomly sampled respondents from the five wards within the area. Results indicated that Option 2; the communally managed WQTS emerged as the most preferred choice at 53.9%. Secondly, the male factor was identified as the major determinant to this decision. In conclusion, the study proposes for the installation of this new WQTS which will trigger a 12% adjustment of the average household’s monthly water bill. In addition, this paper recommends for a city-wide assessment of residents’ willingness to pay (WTP) for this WQTS, which it deems as an improved response to water shortage problem. Finally, the study contributes to the application of DCEs model in technology adoption literature.
Highlights
Studies on response to water shortage conditions in urban areas continue to attract a lot of global interest
In terms of age groups; 24.1% of the respondents were under years of age (92), 74.9% were between - 70 years (286) while only 1% were above 70 years of age (4). When it came to education, it was found that 59.9% had university degrees (229), 18.1% had college qualifications (69), 15.4% were high school graduates (59), 5.2% were primary school drop outs (20) and 1.3% were in the illiterate category (5)
This form of community led water use data generation may continue only if this adopted water quality tracking system (WQTS) is secured under a new water supply policy for the larger Nairobi city
Summary
Studies on response to water shortage conditions in urban areas continue to attract a lot of global interest. Pioneer investigators have focused more on how to increase water supply flows in municipal taps to narrow the ever widening demand-supply gaps. Most water supply service improvement schemes based on infrastructure expansion quickly become obsolete due to multiple convoluting stressors in the local scenes [3]. ; the dependent households do turn to alternative water sources [4]. Technologies such as desalination and waste water recycling do offer credible alternatives according to [5] [6] [7] [8]. In the poor nations on the other hand, more than 700 million people are known to rely on informal water market when the municipal supplies fail, but whose quality is not trusted [9] [10] and [11]
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