Willingness to pay/use for water supply and sanitation

This paper is a sociocultural case study of Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, on the willingness to pay/use for water supply and sanitation. “Willingness to use” is a relatively new concept which can be defined as the maximum amount of desire one can willingly express for a certain commodity or service. Many technical, institutional, financial and legal factors determine the willingness to use. Affordability combined with willingness to use leads to willingness to pay. The low “willingness to pay/use” is one of the reasons behind the unproportional success rate of much of the national and international efforts undertaken for safe water supply and sanitation. However safe water supply and sanitation is an urgent need in Bangladesh where the number of water borne diseases cases per 100,000 persons is 51,000, much higher than other developing countries (WHO, 1992). One of the causes behind this alarming situation is low willingness to pay/use. Along with a brief description of the present situation in Dhaka city, efforts are taken to identify the problems behind the low willingness to pay/use for water supply and sanitation in light of the sociocultural aspects. This may provide useful information for other developing countries. Some improvement strategies are also proposed.