Higher water tariffs for less river pollution—evidence from Min River and Fuzhou City, People’s Republic of China

Yi Jiang (), Leshan Jin and Tun Lin

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Upstream nonpoint source pollution has become a significant threat to urban drinking water safety in the People’s Republic of China. Payment for environmental services (PES) is seen as a promising mechanism to deal with the situation. In designing a sound PES, it is crucial to determine the willingness to pay (WTP) of urban beneficiaries for upstream water pollution controls. An analysis of household data from a contingent valuation survey conducted in Fuzhou in 2009 reveals that household income is the most important factor in determining respondents’ positions on water tariff increases as well as WTP under a PES scheme. Mean WTP varies from Yuan (CNY) –0.45 per cubic meter to CNY0.86 for different income groups. The overall mean WTP is estimated to be CNY0.21, which is equivalent to a 10% increase in the current tariff, with the 95% confidence interval at (CNY0.12, CNY0.31). The point estimate implies a total annual WTP of Fuzhou City equal to CNY22 million, which is 27% less than the contribution of Fuzhou to an ongoing government-financed PES. However, with continuous water tariff increases, affordability among low-income households might arise as an issue. This calls for subsidies targeting low-income households to be incorporated in water tariff reform.

Keywords: water tariff; river pollution; upstream nonpoint source pollution; payment for environmental services; willingness to pay; Min River; Fuzhou City; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q25 Q53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env and nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/24992/1/MPRA_paper_24992.pdf original version (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Higher Water Tariffs for Less River Pollution—Evidence from Min River and Fuzhou City, People’s Republic of China (2010)
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:pra:mprapa:24992

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany Ludwigstraße 33, D-80539 Munich, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Joachim Winter ().