DETERMINANTS OF HOUSEHOLDS’ WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT: THE CASE OF BABILE TOWN, EASTERN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Solid waste management service is one of the major services that city governments are expected to provide to their residents. However, continuous neglect, inappropriate organization, inadequate financing, lack of human resource and the like have hindered the effectiveness of the service delivery in developing countries, especially in Sub-Saharan African countries like Ethiopia. This study was undertaken to examine households’ willingness to pay for improved solid waste management service in Babile town of eastern Ethiopia. The study used both primary and secondary data. A sample of 121 households was drawn using a random sampling technique for an interview. Descriptive statistics, choice experiment and econometrics models were used to analyze the data. Choice modeling (CM) was employed to estimate household’s WTP for improved solid waste management service. The finding of this study showed that there was no solid waste collecting, transporting and disposal service provision in the town. Multinomial logit results also showed that WTP of households for improved SWM are significantly related to education, years of stay in the area, distance from the main road, income, and number of children. The implicit price estimation results of the study also indicated that the implicit prices for all the attributes are positive and the marginal WTP for frequency of waste collection and sorting of waste at xiv source are Birr 10.40 and Birr 13.52 respectively. In conclusion, households support improvement in solid waste management service in terms of collection frequency and waste separation at source.