A survey on the willingness to pay for domestic water service attributes in Terengganu, Malaysia

This study evaluated consumers’ willingness to pay for an improved domestic water services in the state of Terengganu. The following issues are among the challenges faced by water supply provider; excessive water consumption, frequent interruptions, urbanization, climate change, as well as rapid social and economic growths. Choice modelling method was applied in analysing the preferences of domestic water services to improve the standard of current water services. Four attributes, namely water quality, water interruption, water pressure, and water prices were examined to improve water supply services. In order to enjoy the water service transformation, respondents were required to trade-off their income and select their preferences from the attributes based on their willingness to pay. Conditional Logit model was estimated to account for heterogeneity inthe selected choices of the consumers from the options provided in the water service attributes. A survey was conducted from March until June 2015 on 1200 respondents from every district (cluster) in the state. The survey discovered that reducing the frequency of water interruption is the most important water service attribute to the population. Consumers are willing to pay about RM1.29 t lessen the state’s water disruptions. An appropriate water price facilitates the water supply provider to overcome the challenges towards providing a better service. The water services sustainability is essential in providing the population with safe and clean water. A sustainable water service is helping the economic, environmental, and social sustainability of the communities served by the water utilities. Thus, the water provider must focus on long term sustainability in bringing about meaningful transformation in their organizations and service for the public.