- Title
- Water service delivery in Harare: a willingness to pay (WTP) analysis
- Creator
- Mugomba, Lynsey M
- ThesisAdvisor
- Bekker, Doreen
- ThesisAdvisor
- Botha, Ferdi
- Date
- 2016
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- MCom
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/4120
- Identifier
- vital:20614
- Description
- In 2008-2009, Harare (Zimbabwe) was the centre of the worst cholera outbreak in Africa in the past fifteen years. A key reason cited was the lack of adequate water service delivery by the Harare City Council (HCC). Harare requires an optimum supply of 1 400 mega litres (ML) of water daily but the HCC has capacity to produce 650ML and after leakages and theft, only 400ML reaches consumers. This inadequacy compromised the hygiene of residents and forced them to resort to unsafe water sources. Coupled with a failing healthcare system, the outbreak resulted in over 4 000 deaths and further affected 100 000 people. The HCC attributes its poor service delivery to the lack of funds rendering them unable to adequately increase capacity and refurbish existing infrastructure (treatment plants and pipelines). This thesis serves to explore whether the residents of Harare (and surrounding satellite towns) would be willing to pay monthly contributions towards the USD$2.5 billion needed for various water capacity and infrastructure projects to ease the water crisis in Harare. The study analyses the water problem using a framework on the typical stages of water provision. The research also places an emphasis on the key social, economic and political factors that are contributing to the problem in Harare. Upon closer inspection, it was seen that the financial problems that the HCC is having are not only due to the economy, but poor management and transparency structures are also to blame. For various reasons, the government has largely lost its credibility with its citizens, leading some to conclude that the government’s actions reflect those of a predatory state. The contingent valuation method (willingness to pay-WTP) was used in conjunction with the dichotomous choice referendum. The binary probit model was used to help assess the degree to which different variables influenced the respondent’s decision to contribute to the needed funds. In spite of the seeming lack of trust, it was found that approximately 66.19% of the respondents were willing to pay. Amongst those willing, the mean willingness to pay amount was approximately USD$7 monthly per household.
- Format
- 160 leaves, pdf
- Publisher
- Rhodes University, Faculty of Commerce, Economics
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Mugomba, Lynsey M
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RU Department of Economics and Economic History
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| View Details | SOURCE1 | Adobe Acrobat PDF | 2 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details |