| Author | Sarker, Md. Abdur Rashid |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.UE-06-09 |
| Subject(s) | Water-supply Costs Bangladesh Rajshahi
|
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
degree of Master of Science |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | This study analyzes the issue of cost recovery concerning urban water supply, particularly the household piped water, for the Rajshahi city corporation in Bangladesh. It has been based on both primary and secondary data. The study has identified and analyzed both the supply and demand side problems in cost recovery. The analyses from supply side show that the financial condition of the water supply system is weak. The present cost recovery rate is less than 30 % of the operation and maintenance cost. By investigating the costs of water supply, it has been found that the existing monthly water tariff is far below the actual cost. The analysis of non revenue water (NRW) confirms that around 50 % of water gets lost (for technical faults and illegal connections) which means the city is deprived of revenue of a huge amount of water. The water billing and collection are also at poor level. It is found that most of the billing is uncollected and consequently the collection is far below the billing. The main reasons behind poor payment include: irregular billing, inconvenient place of payment, and viewing water as a free good. The major recommendations for improving the supply side problems include: increasing the water tariff so that it can reflect the costs of supplying water; reducing NRW through pipe replacement, pressure management, making illegal connections legal, monitoring the piped networks and introducing 100 % metering of production and consumption; sending water bill regularly and giving more convenient places of payment of water bill for improving billing and collection. The demand side analysis suggests that there is a potential to recover at least operation and maintenance cost from the consumers. More than 85 % of surveyed households do not have the problem of affordability to pay the water tariff. From WTP analyses, it is seen that mean WTP vary with different socio-economic and demographic characteristics. WTP for current water service is low but it is significantly high for continuous water supply and quality water. Revenue projection based on mean WTP suggests that there is huge potential to raise water tariff so that at least operation and maintenance cost can be recovered. Among other variables, income, types of housing and education emerge as three main important predictors for WTP through multiple regression analyses. Improving the water availability and quality, creating income-employment opportunities for household members, giving education to the consumers, awareness raising campaign also emerge as key policy variables to raise household WTP for better cost recovery and improving the water supply |
| Year | 2006 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Development and Sustainability (DDS) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Urban Environmental and Management (UE) |
| Chairperson(s) | Amin, A.T.M.Nurul |
| Examination Committee(s) | Sajor, Edsel;Vilas Nitivattananon |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Her Majesty the Queen of Thailand |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2006 |