Arsenic safe drinking water in rural Bangladesh: Perceptions of households and willingness to pay

Abstract

This study examined the Willingness To Pay (WTP) for Arsenic (As) free drinking water of rural Bangladeshi households across three different districts by applying a double bound discrete choice value elicitation approach. The majority of the households (87%) were willing to pay on average about 5% of their disposable average annual household income for As-free drinking water. However, the amount they were willing to pay for As safe water was very low compared to other household expenses. Factors which influenced WTP included the As contamination level, household income, water consumption, awareness of water source contamination, whether household members were affected by As contamination and whether they already had taken any mitigation measures.