EXISTING SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT PRACTICE, HOUSEHOLDS’ WILLINGNESS TO PAY TO SOLID WASTE COLLECTION SERVICES AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS IN HARAR CITY, EASTERN ETHIOPIA: A CONTINGENT VALUATION STUDY

Abstract

Background: In Ethiopia, inappropriate handling and disposal of solid waste is common in major cities where waste is dumped along roadsides and in the open spaces. Consequently, solid waste is seriously endangering the health and wellbeing of the country’s population. The formation and implementation of relevant waste management policies should consider the local communities’ behavior and their willingness to pay (WTP) to manage the waste. However, the coordination of concerned bodies in identifying the local communities’ knowledge and attitude regarding solid waste management (SWM) has received insufficient attention in Harar city and scientific researches on locals willingness to pay to manage solid waste is also lacking. Objective: The main aim of this study is to estimate households’ willingness to pay to solid waste collection service and associated factors in Harar city, Eastern Ethiopia from May 25 to June 08, 2021. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted among randomly selected 331 households in Harar city. The study employed contingent valuation method to elicit households’ willingness to pay to solid waste collection services, current solid water management practice and associated factors in Harar city. The data were collected by four data collectors through face-to-face interviews from households. Household heads were the primary respondents however in the absence of household heads wife’s were interviewed. Descriptive statistics and censored regression models were analyzed by using STATA 14.2. The ‘Tobit’ command in STATA was used to estimate the maximum likelihood function and to account for determinants of households’ willingness to pay. Results: The finding showed that 89% (95% CI; 85.4, 92.5) of households were willing to pay for the improved solid waste management program with a mean monthly willingness to pay of 41.8 Ethiopian Birr (ETB) (95% CI: 37.9, 45.7). Only about three-fifths (58.1%) of the households received a solid waste collection service, once per week, from the municipality. Regarding service satisfaction, nearly half (46.5%) of the households were not satisfied with the current service in the city. The Tobit model shows that monthly household income of > 8,000 ETB, (β = 31.9, 95% CI; 22.1, 41.7), attended trained about solid waste management (β = 11.8, 95% CI; 5.6, 18.1), having temporary storage at household level (β = 15.3, 95%; 9.5, 21.2), and recycle material though selling or exchanging (β = 5.5, 95%; 1.2; 10.8) were significantly associated with households willingness to pay towards improved solid water collection service. Conclusions: In the study area, the solid waste management system has no adequate source of revenue thus it is challenging to improve the service with the budget only from municipality. The study showed that there is a demand for improved solid waste collection service. Therefore, the local government have to work on ix convincing and organizing the community to pay a fee for solid waste management services, which creates responsiveness. In addition, promoting waste recycling at household level using the 3 R’s (reduce, reuse, and recycle) could be an option to minimize the problem.