Willingness to pay for sanitation services in Dagupan City, Philippines

Abstract

Using the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM), the study looks at the septage management and sewerage services demand of households with latrines in Dagupan City, Philippines vis-à-vis the cost of providing these services. The survey covers a total of 1,200 respondents for the septage and sewerage demand study. For the septage and sewerage studies, income was shown to significantly influence willingness to pay (WTP). WTP was also found to increase across income groups, indicating the plausibility of implementing a socialized pricing scheme for the septage and sewerage fees. Another important implication of the results is that increased demand for sanitation facilities would only take place as general income levels of Dagupan City improve. Under certain assumptions, the individually rational and financially viable Septage Fee is around PhP 46/month with optimal desludging frequency of 3 yrs. This means that a self-financed Septage Program is possible for the city. However, the case is different for the Sewerage Program since none of the proposed fees (including the average WTP of PhP 102/month for the whole sample) is sufficient to cover the huge investment costs associated with a self-financed sewerage infrastructure. Thus, the Local Government Unit (LGU) has to source funds elsewhere.

Pit Latrine Emptying Behavior and Demand for Sanitation Services in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

“…In Bangladesh, NGO-operated hygienic Vacutug services were subsidized and affordably priced at the same rate as manual emptying, but were difficult to obtain and arrange, and unavailable on weekends and evenings when owners were home to supervise the work, resulting in very low uptake [ 21 ]. In Bhutan, lack of awareness and knowledge of how to obtain pre-paid municipal empting services was a key barrier to their use by urban septic tank owners, while in both Bhutan and the Philippines, lack of understanding of the need for regular de-sludging or how to determine when de-sludging was needed were further barriers to timely hygienic emptying [ 22 , 23 ].…”

“…Average emptying frequency was every 7.5 years for latrines that had been emptied while 48% of never emptied latrines were over 10 years old. These rates are well below average frequencies of empting pit latrines or de-sludging septic tanks in poor urban neighborhoods elsewhere, for example in Bamako (1.7 years; <10% of latrines over 10 years old had never been emptied), Ougadougou (6 to 12 months), and Nouakchott (7 months), or recommended for latrines in South Africa (<5 years) and sludge tanks in Bhutan (2 years) and the Philippines (3 years), [ 17 , 19 , 23 , 25 , 26 ].…”

“…They will be even less able to pay at the higher emptying frequencies needed to prevent exposure to fecal sludge from overly full pits. Delayed emptying because of the high one-time payment cost appears to prevail in other cities where large segments of the urban poor depend on on-site sanitation systems [ 22 , 23 ].…”

Costs and Willingness to Pay for Pit Latrine Emptying Services in Kigali, Rwanda

“…Estimates of the willingness to pay (WTP) for FS collection are also not well documented in the research literature (see Table 2) [9,10,11,12]. Balasubramanya et al estimated the willingness to pay for FS collection, roughly half the cost of the cheapest possible service delivery option, according to their cost models [10].…”

“…Balasubramanya et al estimated the willingness to pay for FS collection, roughly half the cost of the cheapest possible service delivery option, according to their cost models [10]. Harder et al estimated the WTP for FS collection services, being charged as a monthly fee, for regular, formalized, municipal septage services [12]. In urban Senegal, Scott et al found that tenants were less likely than owner-occupied households to invest in sanitation, but just as likely to pay for emptying [13].…”