Determinants of Willingness to Pay for Improved Solid Waste Management in Dunkwa-on-Offin, Ghana

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1 Journal of Agrculture and Envronmental Scences March 2014, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp ISSN: (Prnt), (Onlne) Copyrght The Author(s) All Rghts Reserved. Amercan Research Insttute for Polcy Development 42 Montcello Street, New York, NY 12701, USA. Phone: Webste: Determnants of Wllngness to Pay for Improved Sold Waste Management n Dunkwa-on-Offn, Ghana Kwabena Nyarko Adda 1 and Gdeon Danso-Abbeam 2 Abstract Ths study sought to examne wllngness to pay for mproved sold waste management n Dunkwa-on-Offn. A double-bound choce contngent valuaton was used to elct households wllngness to pay (WTP) for mproved sold waste management. The data were subjected to logt regresson technque analyss. The study also examned the exstng sold waste collecton systems n operaton and household s level of satsfacton wth them. The results showed that households perceved the current sold waste collecton servces to have some level of nconsstences. The majorty (94%) of the respondents were satsfed wth the current sold waste collecton servces. The results of the study also revealed that wllngness to pay for mproved sold waste management s sgnfcantly related to level of educaton, gender, household sze and age of the household head. It s recommended that the current collecton operators should mantan servce charges wth the WTP levels whle strvng to mprove servces to mantan and attract new clents. Keywords: Sold waste, Wllngness to pay, Household, Dunkwa-on-Offn, Contngent evaluaton 1.0 Introducton Management of sold waste resultng from rapd urbanzaton has generated a lot of concern n most developng countres. 1 Insttute for Development Studes, Unversty of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana 2 Department of Agrculture and Resource Economcs, Unversty for Development Studes, Nyankpala Campus, Tamale, Ghana, Phone: +233(24) /+233(50) E-mal: nanayawdansoabbeam@gmal.com

2 182 Journal of Agrculture and Envronmental Scences, Vol. 3(1), March 2014 Especally durng the last decade the volume and complexty of sold waste generated partcularly n large ctes, have been ncreasng at an unprecedented rate. Ths ncrease has been attrbuted to two man drvers: ntensfcaton of urbanzaton and rsng lvng standards (Rath, 2007). The sold waste management (SWM) system comprses four actvtes: waste generaton, collecton, transportaton and dsposal (Sharholy, Ahmad, Mahmood & Treved, 2007). SWM therefore requres adequate nfrastructure provson and mantenance for all four actvtes. When not managed adequately, sold waste generates several publc health and envronmental hazards. The ncreasng volume and complexty of sold waste pose the greatest challenges to large ctes n developng countres, where organzaton and plannng of sold waste collecton and dsposal servces tend to be rudmentary. Due to budget and nfrastructure constrants, publc authortes n these ctes are often unable to manage large amounts of sold waste generated. Ths fact s reflected n the unknown volume and types of sold wastes collected; amount recovered and recycled; the nadequacy of dsposal stes, as well as effcent reutlzaton and recyclng programmes (Buenrostro & Bocco, 2003). Most muncpaltes n developng countres spend a large proporton of ther budgets on the collecton, transport, and dsposal of sold wastes. Accordng to Contreau (1984), n most ctes n developng countres, muncpal SWM costs consume 20-50% of muncpal revenues yet collecton servce levels reman low wth only 50-70% of resdents recevng servce and most dsposals beng unsafe. Ths deplorable stuaton s not dfferent n the urban areas of Ghana such as Accra, Tema, Cape Coast, Kumas, Tamale and Sekond-Takorad. Based on an estmated populaton of 24 mllon and an average daly waste generaton per capta of 0.45kg, Ghana generates annually about 3.0 mllon tonnes of sold waste. Accra, the captal, and Kumas, the second largest cty combned, wth a populaton of about 4 mllon and a floatng populaton of about 2.5 mllon generates over 3,000 tonnes of sold waste daly. It s however, estmated that throughout the country only about 10 percent of sold wastes generated s properly dsposed off (Mensah & Larb, 2005). In Accra, for example, only 11 percent of the 1.4 mllon resdents benefts from home collecton (Songsore, 1992), whle the remanng 89 percent dspose of ther waste at communty dumps, n open spaces, n water bodes, and n storm dranng channels (Asoman-Bonteng & Haght, 2004). Ths stuaton s qute dfferent n small town such as Dunkwa-on Offn whch don t generate large quanttes as that of the bg ctes.

3 Adda & Danso-Abbeam 183 Even though the government has prvatzed SWC, the publc sector stll collects half of the waste n ctes. SWC systems dffer dependng on the ncome status of households. Low-ncome groups cannot afford to pay for proper waste dsposal and they tend to dump domestc waste near ther houses, n rvers, nto sewages, drans and at other llegal stes. Furthermore, there are many problems assocated wth SWC. These nclude lack of fnancal support, lack of servce consstency (especally the CCC for low-ncome areas), nadequate servce facltes and the dfference of collecton servces between hgh-ncome and low-ncome areas. Most attempts to mprove sold waste management n ctes n developng countres have focused on the techncal aspects of dfferent means of collecton and dsposal (Flntoff, 1984). More attenton has been pad to mprovng nsttutonal arrangement for servce delvery (Bartone, Lete, Trche & Schertentleb 1991) wth specal emphass on prvatzaton optons (Contreau, 1994). By comparson, much less effort has been drected at nvestgatng the demand-sde aspects related to sold waste management.. Ghanaans pay a fee for the collecton and dsposal servces but the exact value s unknown to the households. Budget constrants have made Metropoltan, Muncpal and Dstrct Assembles (MMDA s) unable to meet the cost n managng the ever ncreasng volumes of waste. Improvement n sold waste management s requred; however, to obtan such mprovements, a hgher payment s also antcpated. In lne wth ths, t s very mportant to explore the possblty of cost sharng by households and for ths we need to explore the demand of these households for SWM servces. Numerous studes have documented ssues on sold waste management systems. Consequently, ths study would contrbute to lterature on the household perceptons as well as ther level of satsfacton on the current sold waste management systems n the study area. The study would also contrbute to the body of lterature on household wllngness to pay for sold waste management systems n developng countres.

4 184 Journal of Agrculture and Envronmental Scences, Vol. 3(1), March 2014 Therefore, the objectves of ths paper are: (1) to analyze the household level of satsfacton wth the current sold waste management systems, (2) to examne household percepton towards the current sold waste management system and (3) to examne factors that nfluence household wllngness to pay for sold waste management systems. The rest of the paper s dvded nto the followng sectons: secton two provdes the lterature revew. Secton three descrbes the methodology that ncludes a descrpton of the study area, samplng technque and data collecton as well as analytcal procedures. The emprcal results are presented n secton four and fnally, secton fve provdes conclusons and recommendatons of the study. 2.0 Lterature Revew Global concern over envronmental mpacts knows no boundares. Jamaludn (2001) argues that complcatons of waste management covers not only effects of the management approach tself, but also the mechansm wthn the system, such as those effects derved from transportaton actvtes to fnal dsposal stes from households or transfer statons. Moreover, Clark (1994), Davo (2001), Park (1998) and Chertoff & Buxbaum (1986) consder publc behavour, consumer perceptons as well as perceptons of government offcals as other components of the system. There s defntely a need for an mproved plannng and management approach partcularly among developng natons. Latest trends n an attempt to emphasze the envronment have been shown by the development of standards at the nternatonal level such as the Internatonal Standards, ISO 14000, the Irsh Standards, ISO 310, and the Canadan Standards Assocaton Standard CSA Z750. It s one of the ams of the standardzaton of products and servces to meet customer satsfacton. Thus, t requres some sort of consumer-based nformaton n the management system. Therefore, t s clear that supporters of Lfe Cycle Analyss (LCA), a part of the 21 envronmental management systems (EMS), vew the mportance of the understandng of consumer behavours n the desgn of plans for future mprovements. Thus, the level of understandng of the publc concernng ther rghts to form a complant of such acts should be studed n order to make the montorng of ndustral actvtes more effectve.

5 Adda & Danso-Abbeam 185 The concept of waste s often that of an otherwse useless or dscarded materal. However, the dea of what consttute a waste s often notonal rather than a concrete term because waste s more easly recognzed than defned. The concept of sold waste accordng to Furedy & Lardnos (2000) s therefore very trcky to defne. In that lght, t becomes clear percepton of what contrbutes a waste are lkely to dffer wdely and that the dvde between a waste and resource may be ndstngushable (Colln, 1995). A waste s therefore what the person responsble for dscardng the materal regards as a waste. Generally, materals dscarded for dsposal are deemed to be wastes (Furedy & Lardnos, 2000). Based on ths controversy, a materal s only defned as waste f t s useless; as soon as t s usable t becomes a resource (Fobl, Armah, Hoyark & Carboo, 2007). However, dfferent authors have defned waste dfferently. Sold waste can be defned as any substance or artcle whch requres to be dsposed off as broken, worn out, contamnatng or otherwse spolng. Agan t can also be defned as any materal whch consttutes a scrap materal or other unwanted surplus substances arsng from the applcaton of any process. Sold waste s dfferentated by ther orgn, physcal form, detaled composton and rsk potental. The quantty and the composton of some types of sold wastes, such as muncpal waste, vary from day to day, season to season and from localty to localty. Sold Waste s classfed based on ther orgn, treatablty and rsk potental. Based on the orgn, sold waste can be sub-classfed nto food waste, rubbsh, ashes and resdues, demolton and constructon waste, muncpal waste, ndustral process waste and agrcultural waste. Food wastes are the anmal, frut and vegetable resdues resultng from the handlng, preparaton and eatng of foods. They are putrescble and decompose rapdly causng malodour. The rubbsh waste comprses combustble and non-combustble sold wastes of households, nsttutons of commercal actvtes etc excludng putrescble materals. The combustble rubbsh conssts of materals such as paper, cardboard, furnture parts, textles, and rubber, leather, wood and garden trmmngs. Non-combustble rubbsh conssts of tems such as glass, broken crockery, plastc, dscarded tns, alumnum cans and materals made of ferrous and non-ferrous metals. Ashes and resdues are materals remanng from the burnng of wood, coal, coke and other combustble wastes n homes, stores, nsttutons, ndustral and muncpal facltes for the purpose of heatng and cookng and above all the remans of combustble wastes are categorsed as ashes and resdues.

6 186 Journal of Agrculture and Envronmental Scences, Vol. 3(1), March 2014 Ashes and resdues are normally composed of fne powdery materals, cnders, clnkers and small amounts of burned and partally burned materals. Waste from demolshed buldngs and other structures are classfed as demolton wastes. Wastes from the constructon, remodellng and reparng of ndvdual resdences, housng complexes, mult-stored flats, commercal buldngs etc are classfed as constructon wastes. The consttuents of ths waste are stones, concrete, brcks, plaster and plumbng. Wastes such as street sweepngs, roadsde ltter, and ltter from muncpal dustbns, dead anmals and abandoned vehcles are referred to as muncpal wastes. Industral process waste ncludes the sold and semsold wastes from ndustral plants. The specfc characterstcs of these materals vary dependng on the nature of the manufacturng process. Agrcultural wastes are resdues resultng from cultvaton of plants and rasng of lvestock such as crop resdues from felds and waste from feedlots. Based on characterstcs, sold wastes can be classfed as bodegradable and non-bodegradable. Ths classfcaton s based on the qualty of sold waste generated from dfferent sources. The bodegradable waste conssts of all carbonaceous wastes that can be bodegraded nto useful or less pollutng products by the acton of mcroorgansms and such anmals lke Annelds and Insects. Non-bo degradable wastes nclude norganc wastes, and non-degradable polymerc organcs lke certan type of plastcs. Wastes that pose a substantal danger mmedately or over a perod of tme to human, plant or anmal lfe are classfed as hazardous wastes. A hazardous waste exhbts the characterstcs lke gntblty, corrosvty, reactvty or toxcty. They are classfed nto followng categores as radoactve substances, chemcals, and bologcal wastes contanng radoactve materals, flammable wastes and explosves. The chemcal category ncludes wastes that are corrosve, reactve or tonc. The bologcal waste category s represented by dangerous wastes emanatng from hosptals and bologcal research facltes.

7 Adda & Danso-Abbeam 187 Many authors have analyzed the effects of socoeconomc and cogntve varables on household s wllngness to pay for a servce. Afroz, Hank & Hasegawa- Kursu (2009) n ther analyss on the household s wllngness to pay for mproved sold waste management n Daka cty, Bangladesh mantaned that age, household sze and ncome mantan an ncreasng functon wth consumers wllngness to pay for mprove sold waste management system. However, they found female to have postve nfluence on consumers WTP and males to have negatve nfluence on consumers WTP. Aggrey & Douglason (2010) confrmed the fndngs of Afroz et al (2009) by statng that these varables and other varables lke household expendture, quantty of waste generated and consumer s level of educaton also pose a sgnfcant nfluence on consumers WTP. Aggrey and Douglason (2010) hypotheszed that the hgher the level of educaton the more people would apprecate the consequences of mshandlng of sold waste and the more value the ndvdual would gve n order to avod the rsk of beng a vctm of unclean envronment. Afroz et al (2009) also reterated the fact that educaton relates to a better understandng of the problem of sold waste and hence WTP for waste management. Emprcal results on age on WTP are mxed. Afroz et al (2009) ponted out that holdng all other factors constant, older people are wllng to pay more than younger people. Ths suggest that older ctzens make more mature decsons related to evaluatng health and envronmental ssues, possbly due to ther age, leadng them to express a hgh WTP value. However, accordng to Aggrey & Douglason (2010), age affects WTP waste management negatvely. Old people may consder waste collecton as government s responsblty and could be less wllng to pay for t. Whles the younger generaton mght be more famlar wth cost sharng and could be wllng to pay. Household sze s another factor that nfluences WTP for waste management. Chuen-Khee & Othman (2002) ponted out that the more the number of people n the household, the more wllng the household wll apprecate a clean envronment. Tamura (2005) n analysng the ndvdual attrbutes of the demand for sold waste collecton n Accra, Ghana found that the more ncome people have, the more wllng they are to pay for sold waste collecton.

8 188 Journal of Agrculture and Envronmental Scences, Vol. 3(1), March 2014 The quantty of waste generated by a household also nfluences WTP for waste management. Aggrey & Douglason (2010) ponted out that, the hgher the generaton of waste, the more the household faces the challenges of waste dsposal and the greater the wllngness to pay. Satsfacton on waste collecton servces also nfluences WTP for mproved waste management. People who are more satsfed wth waste collecton servces are wllng to pay more than ds-satsfed people (Afroz et al, 2009 and Kassm & Al, 2006). 3.0 Methodology 3.1 The Study Area Dunkwa-on-Offn s a rapdly growng town, the muncpal captal of Upper Denkyra East whch s one of the thrteen Admnstratve Dstrcts of the Central Regon of Ghana. The populaton of Dunkwa-on-Offn ncreased from 15,437 n 1970 to 16,905 n 1984 and to 26,215 n The man economc actvtes wthn the town are agrculture, tradng, small scale mnng and artsans. Two man types of waste collecton servces are provded n the Muncpalty; the communal and houseto-house collecton methods. The sold waste collecton s a publc-prvate managed system. It s the Muncpal assembly whch contracts the prvate company for sold waste collecton. The only prvate waste collecton company n the Muncpalty s Zoomlon Ghana lmted. 3.2 Samplng Technques and Data Collecton Mult-stage samplng procedures were used n selectng the respondents. The frst stage nvolved a stratfcaton of households nto three soco-economc strata: Hgh, Mddle and Low-ncome groups based on the Muncpalty s soco-economc status ndex. The advantage of employng the stratfed samplng s to ensure that all ncome groups of the target populaton are represented n the sample. At the second stage, households recevng the central communal contaner (CCC) and house to house collecton (HHC) method of sold waste collecton servces were targeted. These two groups were targeted because they consttute the most organzed form of sold waste collecton n Dunkwa-on-Offn.

9 Adda & Danso-Abbeam 189 Fnally, a smple random samplng was used to select the requred sample sze from each stratum based on the development plan percentages for each ncome group. In all a total of 100 respondents were selected for the study. 3.3 Theoretcal Framework Despte a varety of valdty and measurement ssues (Carson & Haneman, 2006) applcaton of contngent valuaton (CV) surveys are argued to be a vable method of collectng nformaton on preferences for provdng publc goods and servces n developng countres (Washngton, 1998). For nstance Aggrey & Douglason (2010) n Kampala, Chuen-Khee & Othman (2002) n Malaysa and Afroz et al., (2009) n Dhaka provde examples of recent CV studes n developng country contexts. Many of these studes provde evdence that households are wllng to pay a sgnfcant amount for the provson of mproved waste management. Elctng a respondent s preferences through the CV method requres careful survey desgn, choce of survey mode, and selecton of random sample (Whttngton, 2002). Hence, the study adapts a double bound contngent valuaton method. Followng the work of Kmenju & De Groote (2008), the WTP of a group of consumers for a partcular product at a prce (or bd) B can be assumed to have a certan probablty dstrbuton functon. Ths dstrbuton functon can be seen as a functon of prce, wth a hgher prce havng lesser probablty of beng accepted. In appled research, the logstc dstrbuton s commonly used, and the effect of prce s entered ndrectly n an argument called the ndex functon, denoted as v. The most common ndex functon s lnear n the prce or bd B : v B, (1) and the probablty dstrbuton of the WTP s then presented by 2 P( WTP B) exp( v) /(1 exp( v)). (2) The logstc functon has the advantage of a closed-form cumulatve dstrbuton functon G (.), whch then represents the proporton of the populaton whose WTP les below a certan value B : G( B) P( WTP B) exp( v) /(1 exp( v)). (3)

10 190 Journal of Agrculture and Envronmental Scences, Vol. 3(1), March 2014 People who wll accept an offer of value B are those whose WTP s equal to, or hgher than B, (Haneman & Kannnen, 1998; Haneman, Looms & Kannnen, 1991). In the double-bounded dchotomous choce model, the consumer s presented wth two consecutve bds, and the second bd depends on the response to the frst. If u the consumer answers yes to the frst bd ( B ), the second bd ( B ) s set hgher, d but f the ndvdual responds no to the frst bd, the second bd ( B ) s set lower. There are four possble outcomes: yes to the frst bd followed by a yes to the second bd (wth probablty denoted by yy yn ); yes followed by no ( ) ; no ny nn followed by yes ( ) ; and two consecutve no answers ( ). To receve nformaton on a wder range of values, dfferent amounts for the bds are assgned randomly between respondents. The probablty of recevng a yes answer to both questons equals to the probablty that the respondent s WTP s hgher than the hghest bd offered: yy ( B, B u ) Pr( B u WTP ) 1 G( B u ). (4) Smlarly, the probablty of recevng a yes followed by a no equals the probablty that the WTP of respondent les between the ntal bd and the second, hgher bd offered: yn u u u ( B, B ) Pr( B WTP B ) u = G( B ) G( B ). (5) that The probablty of recevng a no followed by a yes s agan the probablty WTP les between the ntal and second bd, now lower, bd offered: ny d d ( B, B ) Pr( B WTP B ) d = G( B ) G( B ). Fnally, the probablty of recevng two no answers are equal to the probablty that WTP les below the second, lowest bd offered: (6)

11 Adda & Danso-Abbeam 191 nn ( B, B d ) Pr( B d WTP) G( B d ). (7) Combnng the probabltes of four outcomes, the log-lkelhood functon for a sample of N consumers takes the form N ln L ( ) d ln ( B, B ) d ln ( B, B ) d ln ( B B ) d ln ( B, B ), D yy yy u nn nn d yn yn u ny ny d, 1 Where d, d, d yy nn yn, and occurrence of that partcular outcome, and 0 otherwse. 3.4 Emprcal Specfcaton (8) ny d are bnary varables wth 1 denotng the Household wllngness to pay for mproved sold waste management can be specfed as: WTP b z (9) Where b represents the last bd level whch the respondent was offered, z s soco economc factors and s the random varable accountng for unobserved factors,, and are parameters to be estmated. The emprcal formulaton of equaton (9) s fnally formulated as: WTP b AGE GEND EDU INC MSTA COSAT HHS (10) Where AGE s the age of the respondent,gend s the gender of the respondent, EDU s the number of years of schoolng of the respondent, INC s the average monthly ncome of the respondent, MSTA s the martal status of the respondent, COSAT s satsfacton wth already exstng waste collecton servce and HHS s the household sze of the respondent.

12 192 Journal of Agrculture and Envronmental Scences, Vol. 3(1), March 2014 The descrptons, measurements and a pror expectatons used n the Logt model are presented n table 1 below. Table 1: Descrpton, measurement and a pror expectaton of the varable used n the Logt model Varable Descrpton Measurement a pror expectaton AGE Age of respondents Years GEND Gender of respondents dummy: 1 f male; 0 f + otherwse EDUC Number of years of formal Years + educaton INC Average monthly ncome of Ghana ceds + respondent MISTA Martal status dummy: 1 f marred; 0 f + otherwse COSAT Satsfed wth current SWM dummy: 1 f yes; 0 f no + system HHH Household sze of the respondent Number Emprcal Results 4.1 Demographc Characterstcs of Respondents From the descrptve statstcs n Table 2, majorty (66%) were between years wth a mean age of 41 years. Ths s an ndcaton that most of the respondents are n ther actve years. Probably due to ther ages, they wll make more mature decsons related to evaluatng health and envronmental ssues leadng them to express a hgher WTP value. Moreover, 10% of the respondents are male headed household and 90% of households are female headed. Agan, 88% of the respondents are marred whle only 12% are sngle. A hgh percentage of marred recorded n all the resdental areas wll nfluence ther famly sze and hence ther waste generaton levels. Ths s due to the fact that marred people are lkely to be more responsble to keep the envronment clean than the

13 Adda & Danso-Abbeam 193 unmarred ones. The mean household members are seven per household. Majorty of the respondents had at least 10 years of formal educaton. Moreover, Table 3 reveals that 5 percent of respondents have ncome below GH 50, 46 percent between GH 51 to GH 150, 38 percent between GH 151 to GH 300 and 11 percent between GH 301 to GH 600. The low ncome level of respondents s consdered a very mportant varable that could nfluence negatvely people s WTP for mprovement n sold waste management. The low ncome levels can be attrbuted to the hgher percentage of female respondents. Most females, untl recently were housewves and not nto major or full tme employment. Table 2: Soco-economc Characterstcs of the Respondents Type of Resdental Areas Varables Hgh Income Mddle Income Low Income Total Freq. Percent Freq. Percent Freq. Percent Freq. Percent a) Gender Male Female Total b) Age Total c) Martal status Marred Sngle Total d) Educatonal level None JHS/Mddle SHS/Tech Tertary Total e) Household sze Source: Feld Survey, 2011

14 194 Journal of Agrculture and Envronmental Scences, Vol. 3(1), March 2014 Table 3 Dstrbuton of Respondents by ncome level Type of Resdental Areas Income Hgh Income Mddle Income Low Income Total Freq. Percent Freq. Percent Freq. Percent Freq. Percent < GH GH GH GH Total Source: Feld survey, Frequency of Collecton Wth respect to the collecton frequency of the exstng sold waste collecton system as ndcated n Table 4, 70 percent of the respondents ndcated nconsstency n the collecton, 4 percent once a week, 2 percent twce a week and 24 percent three tmes a week. The hgher percentage of collecton frequency beng nconsstent n the low ncome resdental areas may be attrbuted to the low prorty gven to people n low ncome areas when t comes to ssues that concern ther welfare. The hgh and regular collecton frequency n the hgh ncome resdental areas may be due to the hgh premum pad by households relatve to the other resdental areas. Table 4: Frequency of Collecton Type of Resdental Areas Responses Hgh Income Mddle Income Low Income Total Freq. Percent Freq. Percent Freq. Percent Freq. Percent Inconsstent Once a week Twce a week Three tmes a week Total Source: Feld survey, Level of Satsfacton wth the Current Sold Waste Collecton Servces As ndcated n Table 5, the majorty of the respondents (94%) were satsfed wth the sold waste collecton servces n Dunkwa-on-offn. The hgher percentage of respondents recorded as satsfed could be mostly those recevng the CCC system of

15 Adda & Danso-Abbeam 195 sold waste collecton. Ths s the case as people who do not pay anythng for a servce beng rendered naturally do not complan much. A hundred percent satsfacton recorded n the hgh ncome resdental areas may be due to the hgh rates they pay, hence they are normally provded wth qualty servces. Table 5: Satsfacton wth Current Collecton Servces Type of Resdental Areas Responses Hgh Income Mddle Income Low Income Total Freq. Percent Freq. Percent Freq. Percent Freq. Percent Yes No Total Source: Feld survey, Respondents Percepton on the Current Sold Waste Problem Respondents were asked to rate ther percepton on the current waste problem n the study area. Ths s presented n table 6. Two percent of the respondents perceved the current waste problem as very serous, 10 percent rated t as serous and 88 percent consdered t not serous. The percentage of resdents n the mddle and low ncome resdental areas ratng the waste problem to be serous may be due to the low prorty gven to them n terms of waste management. Generally the hgh percentage of respondents seeng the current sold waste problem as not serous s not surprsng as Dunkwa-on-Offn s a developng town and s yet to experence fully ths negatve aspect of development. Table 6: Respondents Percepton on the Current Sold Waste Problem Type of Resdental Areas Responses Hgh Income Mddle Income Low Income Total Freq. Percent Freq. Percent Freq. Percent Freq. Percent Very serous Serous Not serous Total Source: Feld survey, 2011

16 196 Journal of Agrculture and Envronmental Scences, Vol. 3(1), March Determnants of WTP for Improved Sold Waste Management For the double dchotomous choce queston, double bounded logt analyss model was used n ths study. The ndependent varables used n the double bounded logt analyss and ther basc statstcs are gven n Table 7. To analyze the nfluence of dfferent factors on households WTP for mproved sold waste management, the parameters of the model were estmated and the margnal effects also calculated n Table 8 Table 7: Descrptve statstcs of the varables used n the Logstc regresson Type of Resdental Areas Varables Hgh Income Mddle Income Low Income Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D Dependent Wllngness to pay 1 f wllng to pay; 0 otherwse Independent Bd Gh /month Gender 1 f male; 0 f female Age Years Years of Educaton schoolng martal status 1 f marred; 0 otherwse Household sze Number Income Gh /month Collecton 1 f satsfed wth current collecton; servces 0 f otherwse Source: Feld survey, 2011 The probablty of a households WTP was modelled as a functon of socoeconomc and cogntve factors. The pseudo R-squared explans the proporton of varaton n the observed values of the response varable explaned by the regresson. It summarzes the proporton of varance n the dependent varable assocated wth the ndependent varables, wth larger pseudo R-squared values ndcatng that more of the varaton s explaned by the model. A pseudo R-squared of was

17 Adda & Danso-Abbeam 197 obtaned suggestng that the degree of correlaton between the dependent varable and the ndependent varable s 50.14%. The log-lkelhood rato statstcs also computes the dfference between the log-lkelhood functon of the full model and restrcted model. The value of the log-lkelhood functon s for the WTP of households. Gender had a negatve coeffcent and s sgnfcant ( <0.10) on wllngness to pay. Ths ndcates that female respondents are more wllng to pay for mproved sold waste management than males, snce tradtonally t s the role of women to clean the house and dspose of the waste. Ths result leads credence to fndngs of Afroz et al (2009) and Aggrey & Douglason (2010). The postve coeffcent for age ( <0.10) ndcates that holdng all other varables constant, older people are wllng to pay more than younger people. Ths suggests that older ctzens make more mature decsons related to evaluatng health and envronmental ssues, possbly due to ther age. Ths result s consstent wth fndngs of Afroz et al (2009) but contradcts the fndngs of Aggrey & Douglason (2010). They are of the vew that old people may consder waste collecton, as government responsblty and could be less wllng to pay for t. Educaton had postve sgnfcant effect on wllngness to pay at 1% level of sgnfcance. Holdng all other varables constant, educated people are wllng to pay for mproved waste sold management than less educated people. Ths result seems straghtforward and reasonable snce level of educaton could be related to a better understandng of the problem of sold waste. Ths result s consstent wth the fndngs of Afroz et al (2009) and Chuen-Khee & Othman (2002) who conducted smlar studes n Bangladesh and Malaysa respectvely. The negatve coeffcent for household sze ( <0.10) ndcates that holdng all other varables constant, the number of persons n the household even though sgnfcant dd not have the expected sgn on WTP. Ths result s consstent to the fndngs of Afroz et al (2009) and Aggrey & Douglason (2010) but contrast the work of Altaf & Deshazo (1996)

18 198 Journal of Agrculture and Envronmental Scences, Vol. 3(1), March 2014 Table 8: Estmates of Household WTP wth Respondents Characterstcs Varables Coeffcent Standard Z-value Margnal Error Effect Constant Bd Gender * Age 0.045* Educaton 0.211*** Martal status Household sze * Income Collecton satsfacton Log lkelhood Pseudo R Observaton 100 Source: Feld survey, 2011 ***, ** and * ndcates 1%, 5% and 10% level of sgnfcance Household sze s expected to have a postve coeffcent due to the fact that the more the number of people n the household, the more wllng the household wll apprecate a clean envronment. The negatve relatonshp between household sze and WTP could be due to ther ncome level, as low ncome household generate low volumes of waste. It s also due to more waste generated by larger households and the fact that they cannot pay for all the waste they generate. Large household szes are also assocated wth low ncome households. The sze of the effects can be gauged by analyzng the margnal effects, whch are ndcators of percentage change n people s wllngness to pay, when all other factors are kept at ther average value. An ncrease n the respondents collecton satsfacton ndex of 1, for example decreases the respondents wllngness to pay for the mproved sold waste management by 2.5 percent. 5.0 Conclusons and Recommendatons Results from the descrptve statstcs revealed that about 70% of the respondents thnk there are nconsstences n the number of tmes waste collecton s done per week. However, majorty (94%) were satsfed wth the current waste collecton servces.

19 Adda & Danso-Abbeam 199 Results from the Logt regresson model revealed that gender, age, household and educaton sgnfcantly nfluence household wllngness to pay for mproved waste management systems. The study provdes the followng recommendatons: A key polcy recommendaton of ths study s that polcy makers can choose from a set of scenaros, whch ncludes dfferent levels of attrbutes and WTP estmates for each attrbute, n desgnng an mproved sold waste management project for Dunkwa-on- Offn. Households should be educated on effectve sold waste dsposal through regular senstzaton programmes by a collaboratve effort of key stakeholders n the sold waste management such as local government, the prvate sector, NGOs and resdents as there was statstcally sgnfcant effect of educaton on wllngness to pay for sold waste collecton. The ever ncreasng populaton growth means that the volume of waste generaton s lkely to ncrease. Hence strengthenng or ncreasng the capactes of relevant stakeholders nvolved n the provson of sold waste collecton servces would provde satsfactory servce delvery as households maxmse ther utlty from mproved servces. The muncpal assembly and the servce operator should concentrate on awareness campagns about the consequences of waste mshandlng and benefts of payment for mproved waste management. The study also provdes contrbutons to the exstng lterature by analysng the determnants of household wllngness to pay for waste collecton servces. Hence, the results of ths study would enrch our understandng of household wllngness to pay for waste collecton servces n the developng countres and provde a gude to polcy makers. Ths study was done n Dunkwa-on-Offn muncpalty and may not be a representatve of the whole country. Therefore, extendng the study to other parts of the country s hghly recommended for future study. References Afroz, R., Hanak, K. & Hasegawa-Kursu, K. (2009). Wllngness to pay for waste management mprovement n Daka cty, Bangladesh. Journal of Envronment Management 90 (2009) Aggrey, N. & Douglason, G.O. (2010). Determnants of wllngness to pay for sold waste management n Kampala Cty. Current Research Journal of Economc Theory, 2(3), Altaf, A. A. & Deshazo, J. R. (1996). Household demand for mproved sold waste management: A case study n Gujranwala, Pakstan. World Development, 24(5),

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