Why Don't Households Connect to the Piped Water System? Observations from Tunis, Tunisia

Abstract

From a study of 82 households in urban areas of Tunis, Tunisia, it appears that the most important obstacle in connecting to the piped water system is the utility-required cash down payment. Results from the study's contin- gent valuation questions showed that the re- spondents could easily afford the anticipated monthly charges for piped water and sewer ser- vice, and their bids for this service were very close to those for households already receiving them. A further conclusion is that, as the reli- ability of the piped water system increases, then the importance of a monthly tariff in the connec- tion decision decreases. (JEL 018, Q25) I. INTRODUCTION A household's decision over whether or not to connect to the piped water system has rarely been examined in the context of developing countries. Altaf et al. (1992) studied this question for rural households in the Punjab, Pakistan, but this recent study is the only entry in the literature known to the author. This paper hopes to add to this area of interest by examining the reasons why urban households in Tu- nis, Tunisia, do not connect to the system when there is no supply constraint. In this regard, it seeks to examine the role of con- nection versus monthly charges in the households' decision. The paper also asks these households what they would be will- ing to pay for individual house connections and monthly water charges and then com- pares the answers to the total household expenditures, to what they are paying to get water from neighbors and, finally, to what customers already connected to the piped water system are paying.