Sustainability of potable water services in the Philippines.
1993
Bohm R.A. | Essenburg T.J. | Fox W.F.
This paper provides an analysis of public policy relating to the rural water supply sector in the Punjab, Pakistan. Based on household survey data, it shows that rural water policies have not kept pace with the rapid economic development in this region and that in the absence of adequate public investment households find private sector alternatives to meet their water needs, often at high economic and environmental cost. Using the contingent valuation method for benefit estimation, it is also shown that household willingness to pay for reliable improved services is much higher than assumed. In fact, full cost recovery is quite feasible in many areas of the Punjab. It is recommended that rural water sector strategy be changed from a centralized, supply-oriented focus to a decentralized, demand-oriented policy Philippines is evaluated based on a comparison of willingness to pay for improved water and the costs of service delivery. Willingness to pay estimates indicate that user fees are unlikely to be sufficient to cover the full cost of service and subsidies are necessary, at least for a major portion of capital costs, or the water systems will become unsustainable because of insufficient resources. Sustainability is more probable when care is exercised in selecting villages for improved water services. Economics of scale lead to lower unit costs in larger villages. Willingness to pay is greater for household connections than for public faucets. Willingness to pay increases with income and wealth, family size, education, and dissatisfaction with traditional water sources.
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