Evaluating the willingness of Kenyan water utility customers to pay a little bit extra on their water bill to support slum sanitation.
This Policy Brief explores the main factors that influence willingness to pay (WTP) among utility customers to pay a hypothetical sanitation surcharge. These factors included: trust that the money would be spent correctly; perceived own-benefit from slum sanitation improvement; feelings of solidarity with slumdwellers; and satisfaction with water and sanitation services.
Median WTP was 100 Kenya shillings (Ksh) per month, around $1. If applied across all of Kenya’s 91 utilities, this could potentially raise up to 1.6 billion Ksh annually, around $16 million.
This research was conducted by Aquaya with support from University of California Berkeley.
Full findings can be found in “Cross-subsidies for improved sanitation in low income settlements: assessing the willingness to pay of water utility customers in Kenyan cities”, World Development (March 2019), Vol.115, pp.160-177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.11.006
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