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Increased Willingness to Pay for Safe Drinking Water: A Case Study of South-West Guwahati


Affiliations
1 Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati-781039, India
 

A water treatment scheme is being implemented in South-West Guwahati with financial assistance from Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. However, the scheme is finding intense opposition from local population due to planned charging of tariff on the supplied water. Presently, groundwater is being used for domestic purposes by the people of the area, but it is suspected of contamination with natural sources. Therefore, there is a need to make the population aware of existing quality of groundwater used by them which shall likely to assist them in taking a decision for procurement of water from the scheme. Groundwater from 1296 household sources were collected for assessing the water quality. It is observed that concentration of iron exceeded in 708 sources while concentrations of fluoride and arsenic exceeded in 200 and 126 sources respectively. Also a questionnaire survey was carried out before and after assessing the groundwater quality to assess increased willingness to procure water from the scheme. Around 48% surveyed household indicated their willingness to purchase water without knowing the water quality of their household source. But after knowing the groundwater quality, the willingness to pay for water from the scheme increased to 74%. Hence, awareness of groundwater quality helped increased acceptance and willingness to pay for safe drinking water from the scheme.

Keywords

Fluoride and Arsenic, Questionnaire Survey, Safe Drinking Water.
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  • Increased Willingness to Pay for Safe Drinking Water: A Case Study of South-West Guwahati

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Authors

Rakhee Das
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati-781039, India
L. Boeing Singh
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati-781039, India
Mohammad Jawed
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati-781039, India

Abstract


A water treatment scheme is being implemented in South-West Guwahati with financial assistance from Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. However, the scheme is finding intense opposition from local population due to planned charging of tariff on the supplied water. Presently, groundwater is being used for domestic purposes by the people of the area, but it is suspected of contamination with natural sources. Therefore, there is a need to make the population aware of existing quality of groundwater used by them which shall likely to assist them in taking a decision for procurement of water from the scheme. Groundwater from 1296 household sources were collected for assessing the water quality. It is observed that concentration of iron exceeded in 708 sources while concentrations of fluoride and arsenic exceeded in 200 and 126 sources respectively. Also a questionnaire survey was carried out before and after assessing the groundwater quality to assess increased willingness to procure water from the scheme. Around 48% surveyed household indicated their willingness to purchase water without knowing the water quality of their household source. But after knowing the groundwater quality, the willingness to pay for water from the scheme increased to 74%. Hence, awareness of groundwater quality helped increased acceptance and willingness to pay for safe drinking water from the scheme.

Keywords


Fluoride and Arsenic, Questionnaire Survey, Safe Drinking Water.

References