Households demand and willingness to pay for improved waiste collection services in Mzuzu city

Abstract

Globally, municipal authorities have ultimate and direct responsibility to manage Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) collection services. Many cities in developing countries record low coverage on MSW collection services owing to significantly high costs of equipment, operations, maintenance and human resources. Uncollected waste remains a big threat to environmental and public health. Municipalities in Malawi depend on grants from the central government to finance MSW collection services management. At a household level, cities in Malawi offer free MSW collection services. Moreover, over 61% of solid waste generated remain uncollected due to inadequate resources. From 2009-2014, Mzuzu City got below 30% of the required budget to manage MSW collection services. Mzuzu does not have reliable sources to fund MSW collection services rendering free services unsustainable. A household survey was conducted to evaluate households' demand and willingness to pay (WTP) for improved MSW collection services in Mzuzu City. To achieve the study objective, a structured household questionnaire was developed and deployed into kobo collect software for easy data collection, entry and monitoring. Data from household respondents were collected utilizing Android smartphones. The study targeted household heads as respondents to the household questionnaire because of their decision-making powers over household expenditures. Furthermore, the researcher conducted key informant interviews with Mzuzu City Council staff to collect data on MSW management and financing. Logistic regression model was used to identify factors that could influence willingness to pay for improved MSW collection services in Mzuzu City. In addition, the study based the analysis of determinant for willingness to pay for improved MSW collection services on Ajzen theory of planned behavior. The study established that only 7% of the sample population had access to MSW collection services in Mzuzu City. In addition, a majority (63%) of the sample population viewed inadequate MSW collection as a very serious problem in Mzuzu City. The findings also showed that 52% of the total respondents were willing to pay for improved MSW collection services and average WTP was K2050/household/month ($1=K732). Logistic regression model results showed that level of education and household size had a significant positive relationship with willingness to pay for improved MSW collection services in Mzuzu City. Furthermore, logistic regression model results showed that that age, gender, concern about environmental degradation, access to MSW collection services, and household income and marital status did not have any influence on willingness to pay for improved MSW collection services in Mzuzu city. In addition, this study showed that high-income areas had more household willingness to pay for improved MSW collection services than low-income households did. The latter would resist commercialization of MSW collection services, as it would bring additional responsibility on the head of households to pay for services that have been free. Therefore, the conclusion was that commercialized MSW collection would only succeed in high-income areas. Further research is needed on disposal of human excreta and wastewater as these ranked among important environmental sanitation problems in Mzuzu City. The study findings suggested further research on electronic waste management in Mzuzu City as it was apparent that Mzuzu City Council did not have strategies in place to manage high toxic wastes sustainably.