Willingness to pay for sewage treatment services in the Ashaiman municipality

Abstract

Waste is inevitable as far as productivity, growth and development is concerned. However, the continuous increase in waste generation becomes very challenging and poses treat on sanitation, health and wellbeing of people. Following the positivist research philosophy and quantitative approach to research, the study seeks to investigate willingness to pay for sewage treatment services in the Ashaiman Municipality. The Contingent Valuation Model explains the value that individuals place on public goods, services, or environmental changes that have no market price was adopted in the study. The study used the logistic regression model in estimating the drivers of households’ heads choice for the type toilet facility and willingness to pay for sewage treatment services (objectives 1 and 2). The study continued the contingent valuation model following the Newey, Lagrange and Cameron non-linear regression technique in estimating how much households’ heads will in are willing to pay for sewage treatment services (objective 3). The study found that age, tenancy status, education level, gender and household dwelling unit significantly affect the drivers of households’ heads choice for the type toilet facility. Whereas age, choice of toilet facility, household income, employment status and improve farming significantly affect willingness to pay for sewage treatment services. Lastly, the study concluded that majority of the people living in the Ashaiman Municipality were willing to pay an average amount of approximately Gh₵ 25 on annual basis for sewage treatment services.