The Determinants of Willingness to Pay for Improved Management of Water Projects among Households in Baringo County, Kenya

Abstract

All over the world, water problem has not improved despite the fact that millions of shillings have been invested in building dams and pipe system to supply water to the households. This study sought to establish the willingness to pay (WTP) decisions among households in the county of Baringo to improve management of water projects. The study uses contingent valuation (CV) framework to assess the policy value of managing water projects in the County. A conventional payment card (PC) was used to draw preferences from households in order to estimate the mean and the median WTP for improved management of water projects in the county. This research adopted a quantitative technique method and household in Baringo were the unit of analysis. Data was collected from 155 respondents through simple random sampling procedure including key informants. Through interval regression analysis, the study found that households were, on average, willing to pay Kshs. 233.30 ($2.75) and a median of Kshs. 200 ($2.35) for improved management of water projects. Mean and median policy value of improving management of water projects were estimated at Kshs. 129.6M ($1.30) and Kshs 111.1M ($1.11). These amounts were significantly found to increase with education, income, water sources, quality of water, distance to water source, confidence with payment vehicle and fluorosis. However, amounts were found to decline with age, marital status and incidences of fluorosis. The study concludes that there were significant characteristics for improved management of water projects, which is vital for implementation of water management plans.