Abstract
We apply a hedonic house price analysis to value connection to the piped water network in Southwest Sri Lanka based on a household survey that was conducted in 2003-04. We find that the willingness-to-pay for a piped water connection is on average about 5 percent of monthly household expenditure, which is at the lower end of the range from estimates obtained in case studies in other developing countries. In addition, the willingness-to-pay for piped water decreases as a proportion of income when income goes up. An important policy conclusion is that connection to the piped water system should be considered in relation to the availability and quality of alternative water sources. If alternative sources with good water quality are available, the need for a piped water connection is less urgent.
Highlights
The World Health Organization and UNICEF’s Joint Monitoring Programme (2010) estimated that in 2008 about 884 million people in urban areas in developing countries lacked access to safe water
This tendency of hedonic pricing models to provide an upper bound of willingness to pay has been noted by different authors (Vaughan and Ardila 1993; Carson et al 1996)
The main empirical finding of this paper is that the willingness-to-pay for a piped water connection is on average about 5–7 percent of monthly household expenditure
Summary
The World Health Organization and UNICEF’s Joint Monitoring Programme (2010) estimated that in 2008 about 884 million people in urban areas in developing countries lacked access to safe water. Somewhat lower results have been obtained by Suparman et al (2009) who estimate the value of piped water at approximately 8 percent of mean household monthly income in rural and urban areas in Indonesia. Estimates of the willingness to pay for connection to the piped network would be used to calculate connection fees and monthly service charges, which would not discourage households to connect; for further details see Van den Berg et al (2006). The results obtained in this paper complement Pattanayak et al (2006) who estimate the willingness to pay for piped water by means of contingent valuation for the same sample of households.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
