Household willingness to pay for improved solid waste management services within the Urban Council (UC) limits of Vavuniya

Abstract

Particularly in developing countries, the accumulation of solid waste has been to such an extent that there is an adverse effect on our environment due to rapid urbanization, increasing population and insufficient budgetary allocations for Solid Waste Management (SWM) services. The aims of this paper are value the SWM services and estimate the households‟ willingness to pay (WTP) for improved SWM within the UC limit of Vavuniya. In this study, the sample of 130 households was randomly selected from purposively selected two ward places namely Thonikal and Pandarikulam. Contingent valuation method (CVM) is used as a tool for valuation. Multiple liner regression analysis was used to determine the factors as income, age, education and number of households that influence WTP of households for improved SWM. The results reveal that WTP of households are significantly related to income. Besides, results also reveal that the income and education positively correlated with WTP where as the age and number of households negatively correlated. According to the services valuation, Vavuniya UC spent nearly Rs 105 per household per month. The mean WTP of the households was Rs. 70 is just far below the expenditure of the SWM services and in this study can be used by policy makers for decision making and improved the existing solid waste management services.