Study the willingness to pay for domestic water, applied in Gia Lam district, Ha Noi

Abstract

   Water demand and water pollution problems are increasing rapidly day by day in the world. Therefore, water is considered as one of the scarce resources which may be exhausted in the 21st century, especially for domestic water. Water demand management is one of approaches to understand clearly the customer behavior as well as their willingness to pay (WTP), which contribute to water management efficiently. In this article, a contingent valuation method (CVM) is applied to study WTP and factors that affect the WTP for domestic water services in Gia Lam district with selected households. The result shows that their willingness to pay is still quite low. The highest level is about 3,000 VND/m3, accounting for 22% and only 2% of households are willing to pay more 6,000 VND/m3, compared to the current water tariff. Education level, sex and income are the main factors that influence to their WTP.