Costs and benefits of improving water and sanitation in slums and non-slum neighborhoods in Dhaka, a fast-growing mega-city

Roy Brouwer; Dilruba F. Sharmin; Susan Elliott; Jennifer Liu; Mizan R. Khan

doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2023.107763

Costs and benefits of improving water and sanitation in slums and non-slum neighborhoods in Dhaka, a fast-growing mega-city

Roy Brouwer^*, Dilruba F. Sharmin, Susan Elliott, Jennifer Liu, Mizan R. Khan

^*Corresponding author for this work

Environmental Economics

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Mega-cities like Dhaka in Bangladesh face urban planning challenges to provide residents access to safe water and sanitation. This paper presents the results of a large-scale survey focusing on slum and non-slum residents' experiences with urban water supply, water pollution and flood risks and associated costs of illness (COI). The latter are compared to residents' willingness to pay (WTP) for improved water services. We test differences in public health risks between slum and non-slum residents and the value of improved water and sanitation in a discrete choice experiment closing the loop between water supply, wastewater and stormwater. We find that a substantial share of a Dhaka household's disposable income is spent on water, varying between 3 and 21% across neighborhoods. Over 10% of the residents link poor health to poor water quality and face higher COI. Higher income non-slum residents appear to have a higher absolute WTP, but slum residents are willing to contribute a higher share of their income to the improvement of urban water management. These results provide important value cues to support large-scale investments in improved water and sanitation infrastructure and their cost recovery.

Original language	English
Article number	107763
Journal	Ecological Economics
Volume	207
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2023.107763
Publication status	Published - May 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This study was funded under the Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP) Urban Sanitation Research Initiative and supported by the REACH programme funded by UK Aid from the UK Department for International Development (DFID) for the benefit of developing countries (Aries Code 201880). The views and information in this paper are not necessarily those of or endorsed by WSUP or DFID. The survey presented in this paper was approved by the University of Waterloo's Office of Research Ethics (#40508). The authors are grateful to the team of interviewers in Dhaka for conducting the in-person interviews and the local WSUP office in Bangladesh for their support on the ground. The paper benefitted from the valuable feedback provided by Guy Norman and Rosie Renouf from WSUP and two anonymous reviewers.

Funding Information:
The Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DWASA) is responsible for providing drinking water, sewerage, and stormwater drainage services to the city, and is dependent on the funding it receives from the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development, and Cooperatives. The city's water supply coverage is nowadays 100%, providing water to >382,000 water supply connections, of which >97% are metered. This was achieved, in part, based on a $212.7 million grant from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) over the period 2007–2016, 2 2 which financed the Dhaka Water Supply Sector Development Program (DWSSDP) under a multi-donor partnership ( Sharma and Alipalo, 2017 ).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors

Funding

This study was funded under the Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP) Urban Sanitation Research Initiative and supported by the REACH programme funded by UK Aid from the UK Department for International Development (DFID) for the benefit of developing countries (Aries Code 201880). The views and information in this paper are not necessarily those of or endorsed by WSUP or DFID. The survey presented in this paper was approved by the University of Waterloo's Office of Research Ethics (#40508). The authors are grateful to the team of interviewers in Dhaka for conducting the in-person interviews and the local WSUP office in Bangladesh for their support on the ground. The paper benefitted from the valuable feedback provided by Guy Norman and Rosie Renouf from WSUP and two anonymous reviewers. The Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DWASA) is responsible for providing drinking water, sewerage, and stormwater drainage services to the city, and is dependent on the funding it receives from the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development, and Cooperatives. The city's water supply coverage is nowadays 100%, providing water to >382,000 water supply connections, of which >97% are metered. This was achieved, in part, based on a $212.7 million grant from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) over the period 2007–2016, 2 2 which financed the Dhaka Water Supply Sector Development Program (DWSSDP) under a multi-donor partnership ( Sharma and Alipalo, 2017 ).

Funders	Funder number
Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor
Asian Development Bank
Department for International Development, UK Government	201880
Department for International Development, UK Government

Keywords

Choice Experiment
Cost-of-Illness
Dhaka
Mega-City
Water and Sanitation

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10.1016/j.ecolecon.2023.107763

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title = "Costs and benefits of improving water and sanitation in slums and non-slum neighborhoods in Dhaka, a fast-growing mega-city",

abstract = "Mega-cities like Dhaka in Bangladesh face urban planning challenges to provide residents access to safe water and sanitation. This paper presents the results of a large-scale survey focusing on slum and non-slum residents' experiences with urban water supply, water pollution and flood risks and associated costs of illness (COI). The latter are compared to residents' willingness to pay (WTP) for improved water services. We test differences in public health risks between slum and non-slum residents and the value of improved water and sanitation in a discrete choice experiment closing the loop between water supply, wastewater and stormwater. We find that a substantial share of a Dhaka household's disposable income is spent on water, varying between 3 and 21\% across neighborhoods. Over 10\% of the residents link poor health to poor water quality and face higher COI. Higher income non-slum residents appear to have a higher absolute WTP, but slum residents are willing to contribute a higher share of their income to the improvement of urban water management. These results provide important value cues to support large-scale investments in improved water and sanitation infrastructure and their cost recovery.",

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Costs and benefits of improving water and sanitation in slums and non-slum neighborhoods in Dhaka, a fast-growing mega-city

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

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