DETERMINANTS OF HOUSEHOLDS' WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR IMPROVED SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT IN BALE-ROBE, ETHIOPIA

In the country in general and in the study area in particular the problem of solid waste is aggravated by rapid urbanization. This study examined household’s willingness to pay for improved solid waste management in Bale-robes, Ethiopia. Simple random sampling was used to draw 389 households in the study are and open ended elicitation format of contingency valuation method was used for elicitation purpose. The survey result indicated that majority (66%) of household heads’ perceived the municipality is not doing well to fix the problem of solid waste encountered and about 86% of the sampled households are aware of adverse effect of improper management of solid waste on human health. The logit model was employed to examine the effect of socioeconomic, demographic and institutional set up on willingness to pay while the tobit model was used to investigated factors affecting maximum amount that households are willing to pay. The result from logit model indicated that environmental awareness and educational level positively affected willingness to pay while satisfaction with current service had negative effect. The result from tobit model showed that income, education, by-laws and environmental awareness had positively affected the maximum willingness to pay while the effect of age and satisfaction with current service was negative. The study concluded that benefit in terms of improved health will be realized if the municipality provides the improved service. The author recommended that awareness creation campaign should be undertaken and payment fees should be based on income level 2