WILLINGNESS-TO-PAY FOR WATER SERVICE OF PEOPLE IN A COASTAL COMMUNE – A CASE STUDY IN VINH XUAN COMMUNE, PHU VANG DISTRICT, THUA THIEN HUE PROVINCE

Abstract

These days, clean water plays a vital role in the life but many inhabitants in Vinh Xuan, a coastal commune, are facing the clean water shortages. This paper presents the results of water use situation, Willingness-To-Pay (WTP) and analyzing the factors affecting WTP for water service of residents in Vinh Xuan. A survey on water consumption and WTP estimation of users for water service experienced that only one-third of Vinh Xuan people have had access to clean water. This situation illustrated getting access as well as using clean water have been still limited while the demand of water use has been rising. Besides, more than a half of inhabitants in this commune accepted to pay for better water quality and regular water supply even the water price is higher from 500 to 1,000 dong per m3. The average WTP was calculated, 8,519 dong per m3 with households using piped-supplied water and about 8,750 dong per m3 with non-using tap water households. Through interview and regression model, some main factors affecting household’s water use were awareness of water use, income of residents, etc. Several solutions were proposed to improve the situation of water use and WTP for water service in Vinh Xuan.