Research articleDo the urban poor want household taps? Community preferences and willingness to pay for household taps in Accra, Ghana
Introduction
Poor access to safe water remains a critical global challenge. Globally, over 2 billion people lack reliable access to safe drinking water (WHO and UNICEF, 2017). In Sub-Saharan Africa, unsafe water constitutes a significant public health challenge in the informal settlements where more than 60 percent of the urban population lives (Adams et al., 2019; Dos Santos et al., 2017; Satterthwaite et al., 2019). Public water sources cannot satisfy demand in informal settlements and households are forced to cope with intermittent supply, long waiting times, poor water quality, and a high cost of water (Smiley, 2013, Dos Santos et al., 2017, Adams, 2018). Vendors and independent water operators also charge prohibitive prices for water that is sometimes unsafe (Collignon and Vézina, 2000, Luengo et al., 2010, Jimenez-Redal et al., 2014). Water utilities are under enormous pressure to meet growing urban water demand with weak infrastructure, high treatment costs, and low investments (Adams et al., 2018). As a result of these constraints, adoption of household taps remains worryingly low. Both public and private water utilities often view household taps for the urban poor as economically inefficient because cost recovery is not guaranteed (Bakker et al., 2008).
Global efforts to address poor water access emphasize the importance of improved water sources, which are sources less prone to contamination. The Sustainable Development Goal 6.1 underscores the need for safely managed water, namely a source on premises (within a dwelling, yard, or plot), available when needed, and free from fecal or chemical contamination (WHO, 2017). The new SDG target of ensuring ‘by 2030, universal and equitable access to safe drinking water for all’ thus underscores the need for more onsite drinking water, ideally private taps within a household's dwelling or compound as they are by far the safest source by design and construction (WHO, 2017). Ownership of private taps offers both economic and public health benefits (Bond, 1999, Bartram and Cairncross, 2010). Private taps are less prone to contamination compared to other improved and non-networked sources. Even when off-site water sources are improved, transportation, storage, and handling can compromise quality (Eshcol et al., 2009, Pickering et al., 2010, Boateng et al., 2013). In the informal settlements of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, diarrhea in children was rampant despite 91% of households using non-piped improved sources (Dos Santos, Ouédraogo and Soura, 2015). Without household taps, women and girls spend considerable time and energy fetching water (Whittington et al., 1990, Sorenson et al., 2011, Adams et al., 2018a), a task that emerging evidence shows can significantly lead to musculoskeletal disorders and decline in overall health, especially in low-income settings (Geere et al., 2018a, Geere et al., 2018b). Ownership of private taps can significantly ease the social burden associated with water fetching and potentially alleviate the affordability concerns often associated with vendor-sold water.
While there is an extensive body of literature on everyday urban water insecurities, household coping strategies, and public health implications, far less attention has been paid to the question of whether households in urban informal settlements are interested in private taps. The few existing studies offer mixed perspectives: some assume that the urban poor are unwilling to pay for water connections while others argue that the urban poor may be willing to pay given that they already purchase water from vendors at prohibitive prices (Addo-Yobo et al., 2006). Stated preferences studies have also provided evidence that households are willing to pay for access to improved tap water services (Dauda et al., 2015, Hensher et al., 2005, Latinopoulos, 2014, Snowball et al., 2008, Tarfasa and Brouwer, 2013). Moreover, those studies indicate that households' willingness to pay varies with water quality, pressure, and frequency of service interruptions. Together these cases, although scant, highlight the need to understand households’ preferences to ensure more targeted interventions to scale up tap water ownership in urban areas. Efforts to expand coverage of piped water services to poor urban areas can benefit from adequate information on consumer preferences and Willingness to Pay (WTP).
We implemented a choice experiment to examine household preferences and willingness to pay for private water connections in Nima-Maamobi, an urban informal settlement in Accra, Ghana. More specifically, this study addresses two policy relevant questions: 1) Are urban households willing to pay for a private connection to tap water systems? 2) What service attributes influence households’ willingness to pay for those connections?
By examining household WTP and preferences for private taps, our study adds to the current literature on WTP in at least three ways. First, compared to prior choice experiments on tap water (Dauda et al., 2015, Hensher et al., 2005, Latinopoulos, 2014, Snowball et al., 2008, Tarfasa and Brouwer, 2013), our experimental design includes a more comprehensive set of attributes: days of service, service hours, water pressure, water quality, and monetary payments. Second, we examine in our choice experiment whether user preferences for tap water are shaped by management, an attribute that very few WTP studies have explored. Notably, Hope (2015) discovered in Kenya that households in rural areas have higher preferences for water points under community-based management compared to public or private management. In Guatemala, households were reluctant to pay for improvements in service if the management model was community-based even if their water services were unreliable, while those connected to more reliable municipal systems were actually more willing to pay for improvements (Vásquez, 2014). Indeed, the JMP report on safely managed drinking water emphasizes the importance of monitoring institutional capacity for achieving universal water supply (WHO, 2017), while recent work also notes that expanding access to water will take not only infrastructural but also institutional improvements (Dapaah and Harris, 2017). Finally, we determine WTP not just based on monthly bill (as is routinely done in WTP studies) but also based on connection fees. Hence, this study provides crucial information for water managers and planners in their quest to expand water service delivery for the urban poor.
Ghana has made significant strides toward improving water access nationwide. It is among the few countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to achieve its Millennium Development Goal on water—halving the proportion of the population without access to improved drinking water ahead of schedule. According to the Joint Monitoring Program (JMP) report in 2013, nationwide coverage of improved water sources increased from 52% to 86% from 1990 to 2011 (WHO and UNICEF and WHO, 2015), although many criticize the JMP numbers for being unrealistic as they are determined based on distance rather than frequency of safe water provided (Bain et al., 2012, Shaheed et al., 2014, Smiley, 2017). According to the 2014 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) report, close to 90 percent of urban households have access to improved drinking water (GoG, 2014), a more optimistic portrait of water access in Accra than empirical studies suggest. Despite the significant progress recorded, access to piped water on premises stands at 18% nationwide (a meager 1% increase between 1990 and 2011), and 32% in urban areas (WHO and UNICEF and WHO, 2015). Countrywide, tap water on premises or yard, according to the 2014 DHS report, decreased from 23 percent to 15 percent between 2008 and 2014; out of this number, only 7.9% constitutes tap water on premises (GoG, 2014).
The Accra Metropolitan Assembly considers water scarcity as one of the major stresses undermining the resilience of Accra and affecting the health and livelihoods of residents, especially in informal settlements (AMA 2018). Accra remains the most populous city in Ghana and one of the biggest metropolitan areas in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a current population of approximately 2.5 million. The city's population has grown exponentially since Ghana's independence in 1958 when it had barely 200,000 people, making it a major business hub. Even though the city's population growth rate (2.14 percent) has decreased in the last two decades (3.34 percent in 2000), the total population is still growing. According to the United Nations report on World Urbanization Prospects, Accra's total population will exceed 3.6 million by 2035 (United Nations, 2018). This rapid population growth and urbanization is also creating informal urban settlements within and around the metropolitan area. It is estimated currently that at least 60 percent of Accra's residents live in overcrowded informal settlements (Machdar et al., 2013).
Accra reflects everyday water challenges in cities and urban informal settlements in Sub-Saharan Africa. Accra residents navigate water insecurity regularly as supply is intermittent and unreliable, especially in vulnerable areas (Stoler et al., 2012, Peloso and Morinville, 2014, Tutu and Stoler, 2016, Ainuson, 2010). Most urban residents depend on limited and basic water services (Vásquez and Adams, 2019). Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), the public water utility, rations water to different urban areas to meet growing demand (Peloso and Morinville, 2014, Tutu and Stoler, 2016). Sometimes rationing of water favors high-income urban neighborhoods at the expense of deprived areas and informal settlements (Stoler et al., 2012). To cope with intermittency, residents practice water storage. Households meet gaps in supply by depending on a rapidly growing sachet water network, private mobile water vendors, water tanker operators, and other independent water providers who typically sell water at a much higher price. It has been reported that low-income urban households in Accra pay as much as 7–13 times GWCL's commercial rates per unit volume of water (Nyarko et al., 2008).
Despite numerous urban water sector reforms, GWCL is unable to supply water on a consistent basis to the entire city of Accra. GWCL is able to meet just about 60 percent of the current water demand in Accra (Nyarko et al., 2008, Peloso and Morinville, 2014). Statistics on the current state of in-house private tap connections in Accra are not readily available even from GWCL, but previous work highlights stark disparities in ownership. About 90-percent of high-income residents own taps, compared to just 16 percent of residents in low-income neighborhoods (Collignon and Vézina, 2000). World Bank reports indicate that only one-third of Accra's residents have drinking water piped to their premises. Among this group, less than half (46 percent) have continuous water supply (World Bank, 2010, World Bank, 2011). Owners of the private taps routinely sell their water to other households at higher prices despite GWCL billing tap owners at domestic rates. Even though GWCL is aware of these clandestine water resales, it does not have the needed human resources to monitor and restrict these activities.
Section snippets
Study site and sampling
We chose Nima-Maamobi (Fig. 1), a giant twin urban slum located in the heart of Accra, Ghana's capital city, for this study. According to the 2010 population and housing census in Ghana, the total population of Nima was 80843 with over 19196 households, while Maamobi had 61724 people with 14477 households (Ghana Statistical Service, 2014). Nima-Maamobi has high social vulnerability because a large proportion of the population are migrants and poor (Owusu et al., 2008). Trading is the
Analytical framework and econometric modeling
The design of choice experiments and corresponding empirical analysis of choice data are based on the Random Utility Model (RUM).1 In this utility-theoretic framework, individuals choose among alternatives based on the expected utility they derive from those
Socio-economic characteristics of study respondents
Table 2 summarizes the socio-economic profile of survey respondents, highlighting income, education, marital status, years in residence, number of rooms, and tenancy status. Most respondents had up to middle school education, lived approximately 20 years in the community, and were married. Reported monthly incomes varied considerably, with a slight majority (about 18 percent) earning more than GH₵ 1000 (US$ 250) over the last month and just 3 percent earning no income in the previous month.
Water sources, use, and access
The
Conclusion
This study examined urban informal residents’ preferences for private household taps and their willingness to pay based on a comprehensive set of attributes: cost (connection fee and monthly bill), days of service, service hours, water pressure, and water quality. We also included preferences for management of household taps, an attribute that has been rarely investigated in other studies despite its importance for water service expansion. Our study affirms previously documented portraits of
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