Willingness to Pay for Water Supply Services in the Southwest Coastal Region of Bangladesh: Comparison of Pond Sand Filters and Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Systems
Keywords:
Commons, Drinking Water, SustainabilityAbstract
This study’s dual purposes were to investigate residents’ willingness to pay for the maintenance and management of water supply facilities and access to drinking water and to identify water supply facilities capable of providing a sustainable drinking water supply in the southwest coastal region of Bangladesh. The study adopts unstructured and semi-structured interviews and participant observations in a settlement of Shyamnagar Upazila where drinking water is a serious issue due to salinisation of groundwater and surface water. This study found that residents in this rural region have difficulty collectively maintaining and managing water supply facilities and that they select drinking water sources based on multiple criteria. The study argues that the ‘tragedy of the commons’ has not been overcome for drinking water in that region. This study highlights that although residents are willing to pay for drinking water, to stimulate this behaviour, household-level water supply services maintaining good water quality and reducing the labour of collecting water should be implemented. The study’s scope does not include the poverty issue, and because the recommendation above requires payment by household, such a water supply might become a significant financial burden. Future studies should assess the feasibility of rolling out household-level water supply systems in the study region.
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