WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR SOLID WASTE COLLECTION IN SEMI- RURAL GHANA: A LOGIT ESTIMATION

40 WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR SOLID WASTE COLLECTION IN SEMI- RURAL GHANA: A LOGIT ESTIMATION ABSTRACT RICHARD AMFO-OTU*; EDWARD DEBRAH WAIFE**; PAUL ADJEI KWAKWA***; SAMUEL AKPAH-YEBOAH**** *Lecturer, Department of Environmental and Natural Resources Management, Presbyterian University College Ghana, Akuapem Campus, Akropong, Akuapem. **Lecturer, Department of Environmental and Natural Resources Management, Presbyterian University College Ghana, Akuapem Campus, Akropong, Akuapem. ***Lecturer, Department of Business Economics, Presbyterian University College Ghana, Akuapem Campus, Akropong, Akuapem. ****Lecturer, Department of Environmental and Natural Resources Management, Presbyterian University College Ghana, Akuapem Campus, Akropong, Akuapem. The willingness to pay for solid waste management services was assessed in semi-rural towns to determine the factors influencing it. The study took place at Akuapem North District in Ghana. Five traditional towns were selected purposively and 60 household heads were interviewed from randomly selected houses using semi-structured interview guide. By employing the logistic regression model, we found that respondents sex, level of education, income, expenditure level, frequency of payment, frequency of collection and satisfaction with the present waste management system do not have any significant influence on the willingness of the respondents to pay for waste collection. However, variables like mode of collection, occupation and age are seen to have a significant effect on willingness to pay. Based on this we recommend that the district authorities should consider the most affordable mode of collection in order to get the support from the members of the society. KEYWORDS: Ghana, Semi-rural, Solid waste collection, willingness to pay. INTRODUCTION In Ghana, solid waste delivery has evolved through various strategies and methods of collection under different political administrations, from local authority led delivery of services to private sector service delivery. Waste collection became a viable venture from the early 1990s when the German Government supported the Accra Assembly to collect

41 waste from various residential areas and business central district (Asomani-Boateng, 1994). Collecting, transporting and disposing of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) presents formidable challenges for many third world cities which usually accounts for 30-50 percent of municipal operational budgets for collecting only 50-80 percent of the refuse generated (Medina, 2002). The privatisation of the solid waste collection activities is actively being pursued by local government authorities in the urban cities whiles the semi-rural and the rural areas are offering the traditional free social services through the private sector. The current free waste collection services are not sustainable, considering the challenges faced by city authorities in introducing fee-based-waste collection systems. The private sector participation in the solid waste collection is affirmed in the Integrated Solid Waste Management (ISWM) which involves the active participation of all stakeholders for implementing sustainable waste management system from point of generation, storage, collection, transfer and transportation, treatment and disposal in accordance with sound environmental practices (McDougall et al., 2001). Therefore environmental services strategies which solely depend on government funding are not sustainable and therefore waste generators contribution in funding waste collection activities is critical. The proposition that rural and semi rural people are not willing and lack the ability to pay for solid waste collection services is just a generalised assumption which may not apply to all rural communities. Generally, much of studies in recent times have focus on the urban centres and cities with little are known about the determinants of willingness to pay for solid waste collection among semi rural urban communities. It is in this regard that we bridge the gap by using a semi rural district in Ghana, the Akuapem North district, to find out what possible variables may influence the inhabitants willingness to pay for waste collection. We again applied the logistic model to make the estimation. A number of studies have identified various variables to be influencing one s willingness to pay for waste management. For instance, Yusuf et al (2007), found in the Oyo state, Nigeria that price of the service, age, educational level, household size and household`s monthly expenditure affected the willingness to pay for waste management. In Dares Salaam residential area, Massito (2009) identified income of the household, the bid value and the size of the household to be influential to willingness to pay for garbage collection. Rahji and Oloruntoba (2009) found that income, asset owned, education, occupation to be significant and positively influencing one s willingness to pay for waste management in Ibadan, Nigeria. The authors however found the coefficient of age to be negative and significant. In the urban areas of district Peshawar, Khattak et al (2009) realized that house holds size, Income of household, and Higher education greatly determined household s willingness to pay for better solid waste management. In another study, Ekere et al (2010) also found that in the Lake Victoria crescent region of Uganda income of the household head, location of the household, gender of the household head, level of environmental concern, age of the household head and quantity of

42 crop waste generated by the households were significant and explained the households willingness to pay for waste management. Banga et al (2011) found in Kampala, Uganda that Both the decision to pay and the amount households are willing to pay for improved solid waste collection services are influenced by income, education, age, and home ownership. Further more, income, location of house, and educational level significantly influenced house holds in Guwahati willingness to pay for waste management (Mahanta and Das 2011). In Addis Ababa, Ethipia, Amiga (2002) found income, time spent in the area, quantity of waste generated, responsibility of solid waste management, education, house ownership, number of children and age to be significant variables in explaining maximum willingness to pay for waste management. Adepoju and Salimonu (undated) found in the Osun state, Nigeria that sex, household expenditure and years of education statistically significant determines household s willingness to pay for waste management. DESCRIPTION OF RESEARCH AREA Akuapem North District Assembly is located at the southern end of the Eastern Region and about 58 km from the nation s capital city, Accra. It has an estimated population of about 166,700 with a growth rate of 1.8% (Census, 2000) and covers about 450 sq km of the total land of the region with its capital being Akropong. The district is located between latitudes 5 o 80 000 and 6 o 10 000 and longitudes 0 o 20 000 and 0 o 00 000. The district is mountainous, with hills ranging between 381m and 500m in height above sea level. The district vegetation is made up of broken forest, secondary forest, shrub and bush. Annual rainfall averages 1270mm, and the weather reflects the invigorating and salubrious, mild cold mountainous climate. Waste management service in the district is basically offered by a private company, Zoomlion Ghana Limited, on behalf of the assembly. The collection method is basically secondary type using communal skip containers which are placed at central points within the beneficiary communities. However there is generally poor sanitation in the district with about 76.4% of the people using public open dump which can lead to an outbreak of diseases in the area (District Assembly Report, 2006).

43 Source: Survey Department, Accra 2008 FIGURE 1: GEOGRAPHICAL MAP OF AKUAPEM NORTH DISTRICT METHODOLOGY AND DATA In order to accomplish the research s objectives, information on existing household solid waste management practices and public perception on the effectiveness of the current system were gathered. In assessing the general attitude of respondents willingness to pay for solid waste collection services for possible cost recovery. Five communities were

44 selected based on the population size (> 5000), the presences of basic infrastructure such as schools, electricity, tarred roads. In all, 60 respondents were interviewed in each community using semi-structured interview guide. Household heads were interviewed (but with multi-households houses, only a household was selected randomly). Data gathered include bio-data, income level, educational level, willingness to pay and preferred method of waste collection among others. The communities selected were Akropong, Mampong, Mamfe, Adukrom and Larteh. Again to estimate their willingness to pay for the waste management we employed the logistic model to run our regression. Logit regression model is used in this study because our dependent variable is binary. This logit model is used for prediction of the probability of occurrence of an event by fitting data to a logistic function. It is a generalized linear model used for binomial regression. The logit model is given below: p i ' E( y 1 x) x.....(1) Where p i is the probability of occurrence, x is a vector of explanatory variables, y is the dependent variable taking the value 0 or 1 and β is a coefficient vector. So in this exercise our is the probability that one will pay for waste collection, the dependent variable y, takes the value of 1 if the person is willing and 0 is he is not willing and x the explanatory variables are age, sex, level of income, level of education, occupation, expenditure, frequency of payment, mode of collection, service satisfaction and frequency of collection. 1. Age is how old the respondents is. The effect of age on the willingness to pay is indeterminate since it can be positive or negative. 2. Sex of the respondent enters in the model as a dummy where it is 1 for male and 0 for female. Its effect can also be positive or negative. 3. Income is the monthly income earned by the household head. The higher the income level the more willing we expect him to pay. 4. Education those with some level of education are more likely to appreciate the essence of waste collection and their willingness to support the assembly by paying for 5. Occupation is the job the respondent is engaged in. It is expected that once an individual is working, he can afford to make some payment for waste collection. 6. Expenditure is the monthly expenses by the household. A higher expenditure may reduce the ability for the individual to pay for the services. 7. Frequency of payment measure the intervals at which the payments are to be made. The intervals can be daily, weekly or monthly. This is expected to have a positive influence on once willingness to pay for waste collection. The longer the interval it is

45 believed that will give some breathing space for the payer hence his willingness to pay and vice versa. 8. Mode of collection explains the service levels to be adopted which influences the cost of service. There are four possible services to be adopted namely, communal service which has the least cost, the block collection which has the low cost, kerbside collection which has the medium cost and house to house has the highest cost. It is expected that the higher the charges due to the service used the lower the probability will be. 9. Satisfaction is a dummy that tells us whether respondents are satisfied with present waste management system in place. Taking on the value of 1 for yes and 0 for no, it is expected that those who are satisfied may not be willing to pay 10. Frequency of collection tells us the frequency at which the waste would be collected from the house or the dumping site. This is expected to have positive coefficient. All data collected was then analyzed using statistical software SPSS 16.0. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS In all 300 respondents were interviewed with 68.7% and 31.3% being women and men respectively. About 82.3% of the respondents were above the age of 25 whiles 17.7% were below the age of 25. Most of the respondents had varying degree of educational levels with the predominant group having basic education (39.3%), secondary education (24.3%), tertiary education (18.7%), vocational education (6.0%) and others (11.7%). The occupational distribution of the respondents was made up of 39.0% traders, 26.7% farmers and 18.0% teachers, public servants (4.0%) and others (12.3%). About 79.6% of the respondents were found to receive between GH 100-250 per month whiles 20.4% received less than GH 100 per month. 93.7% of the respondents indicated their willingness to pay for the waste collection indicating that majority of the people are ready to pay in order for the waste generated in the community to collected. Again 55.3% stated that they are satisfied with the current waste management system. The result from the logistic regression is shown in table 1 below. TABLE 1: DETERMINANTS OF WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR IMPROVED WASTE MANAGEMENT Explanatory variables Coefficient Wald Constant 0.801 0.731 Sex -0.348 1.262

46 Age -0.262 3.414* Education 0.015 0.015 Income 0.272 2.351 Occupation 0.226 5.092** Expenditure 0.038 0.080 Satisfaction -0.222 0.457 Mode of collection -0.918 15.241*** Frequency of payment -0.095 0.729 Frequency of collection -0.124 0.898 * Significance level at 10%, ** Significance level at 5% and *** Significance level at 1% From the regression results we see that respondents sex, level of education, income, expenditure level, frequency of payment, frequency of collection and satisfaction with the present waste management system do not have any significant influence on the willingness of the respondents to pay for waste collection. What this means it that the sex of the respondents, the household head level of education (whether low or high), the household level of expenditure, the frequency of payment (whether daily, weekly or monthly), the frequency of collection (either daily, weekly or monthly) and how satisfied one is with the current waste management do not influence the willingness to pay for waste management at any significance level. This present study therefore does not confirm Cairncross, 1990, World Bank, 1995, Alta and Dehazo (1996), Rahji and Oloruntoba (2009) and Banga et al (2011) that work income and education affect willingness to pay for waste management. Our finding that expenditure does not determine household willingness to pay contrasts Yusuf et al (2007). However, variables like mode of collection, occupation and age are seen to have a significant effect on willingness to pay. The fact that age has a significant and has negative sign at ten percent significance level is a confirmation of Aggrey and Douglason s (2010) work in Kampala. The authors explained that age has negative effect on the willingness to pay because older respondents probably are accustomed to free government services in the previous government unlike the younger people who have been exposed to cost sharing. This experienced can be explained by the argument raised by Cointreau-Levine and Coad, (2000), that in countries which have had a strong socialist or communist tradition in which all services have been heavily subsidized, and in countries with a particularly well-known tradition of corruption, residents may not be willing to pay taxes or user fees to government. Amiga (2002) also found age to be an influential factor determining household willingness to pay for waste management.

47 The mode of collection which influences the cost also has a negative effect on willingness to pay at one percent level of significance. The explanation can be that the respondents are willing to pay if only the least cost mode of collection is adopted. Thus when the kerbside collection is to be used then they will be reluctant to pay but when the communal collection is used then they will be more willing to pay. Occupation has a positive effect on ones willingness to pay for waste collection because once the individual is working he may earn some income which will make it quite easier for him to pay. This is in line with our expectation is significant at five percent level and corroborates (Rahji and Oloruntoba, 2009). The collection methods preferred by the respondents were communal collection (56.1%), block collection (26.3%), kerbside collection (14.3%) and house to house collection (3.3%). CONCLUSION Willingness to pay is important for delivery of every social service including solid waste collection. Willingness to pay was influenced by the educational level, income levels, occupation and age of the service beneficiaries. The research established that the semirural community members were concerned with their waste management practices and were willing to contribute for proper management of their generated waste. The results showed that respondents sex, level of education, income, expenditure level, frequency of payment, frequency of collection and satisfaction with the present waste management system do not have any significant influence on the willingness of the respondents to pay for waste collection. However, variables like mode of collection, occupation and age are seen to have a significant effect on willingness to pay. Based on this we recommend that the district authorities should consider the most affordable mode of collection in order to get the support from the members of the society. REFERENCES Adepoju, A. A., and Salimonu, K. K. (undated). Household Willingness to pay for Improved Solid Waste Management in Osun State, Nigeria. Accessed from http://www.appropriatetech.net/files/household_willingness_to_pay_for_im PROVED_SOLID_WASTE_MANAGEMENT_IN_OSUN_STAT1.pdf on 10/2/2012 Aggrey Niringiye and Douglason Omortor G (2010). Determinants of Willingness to Pay for Solid Waste Management in Kampala City. Maxwell Scientific Organization, Current Research Journal of Economic Theory 2(3): 119-122, 2010, ISSN: 2042-485X Alta, A.A. and O.J. Deshaz, 1996. Households Demand for improved solid waste management, a case study of Gujarwala Pakistan. Word Dev., 24(5): 857-868. Amiga, A. (2002). Households Willingness to Pay for Improved Solid Waste Management: The case of Addis Ababa. A thesis submitted to the school of graduate studies of Addis Ababa

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