Willingness to pay for demand for improvement in drinking water, sanitation, and micro-environmental facilities: case study from Lucknow slums in India
摘要
Slum populations in developing economies face severe deprivation in access to safe drinking water, better sanitation and micro-environmental facilities. Despite existing institutional arrangements, slum populations often adopt various coping strategies and express their willingness to pay (WTP) for improvements of these basic amenities. The study examines the extent, theoretical framework, and determinants of WTP in notified and non-notified slums of Lucknow in India for improved drinking water, sanitation, and drainage facility. It captured WTP by using discrete choice method on a four-stage sample of 900 households stratified by socio-economic status. The results demonstrated that 87%, 90% and 83% of households were willing to pay for improvement in the quality of water services, sanitation, and drainage respectively, with a mean share of 2.74% of their monthly income. Logistic regression and sensitive analysis identified income, age of household head, house ownership and occupation as the key determinants of WTP. Despite belong to lowest urban strata, their WTP signals strong support for major investment in these basic amenities. The study highlights the pervasive nature of informality on basic amenities among the urban subalterns in Global South. It recommends short-and long term measures, including urban job guarantee, greater public and private investment, periodic legalisation of non-notified slums, reduced user charges for public toilets and awareness campaigns to improve accessibility and quality of basic amenities.