Preferences for domestic water services in the Middle Olifants sub-basin of South Africa

Julia Kloos and Daniel Tsegai

No 49970, Discussion Papers from University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF)

Abstract: Using household survey data, this study investigates preferences for domestic water services in the Middle Olifants sub-basin of South Africa. Water is a relative scarce resource in South Africa that is distributed unevenly both geographically and seasonally as well as socio-politically. For a water management addressing the policy objectives of efficiency in use, equity in access and benefits and long-term sustainability, economic valuation of the different water uses is required. In order to detect households' preferences, a choice experiment was conducted. Results suggested the presence of preference heterogeneity and therefore, a latent class model was applied, dividing households into homogeneous groups according to their preferences. Four distinct groups of households could be found which differ significantly in terms of their socio-economic characteristics, their attitudes toward pricing of water and their satisfaction with current water service levels. Willingness to pay (WTP) estimates of different water service characteristics in all groups indicate that households are willing to pay higher prices for a better and more reliable water services provision. But the amount households are willing to pay differs among the groups. This information is helpful for policy-makers to enable the design of water services in the Middle Olifants according to preferences of local households. Besides, WTP estimation can provide a basis for setting water tariffs.

Keywords: Environmental; Economics; and; Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23
Date: 2009-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-dcm and nep-env
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/49970/files/DP%20131.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:ubzefd:49970

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.49970

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Discussion Papers from University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().