An investigation of urban water economics and the role of pricing in demand management and cost recovery: Dhaka city, Bangladesh

This study explores urban water economics and the role of water pricing in demand management and cost recovery for Dhaka City, Bangladesh. Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DWASA) is the responsible authority for supplying water to Dhaka city dwellers. Performance evaluation of the existing water supply system is conducted from operational and financial perspectives. Analysis of operational indicators demonstrates that DWASA is suffering from poor operational management policy, planning, and actions. Analysis of financial performance indicators establishes that DWASA is financially in deficit and requires efficient management policies and pricing structure to improve financial condition. Therefore, it requires overall improvement for ensuring long term sustaining future water supply for city dwellers. Field surveys on consumer satisfaction and willingness-to-pay have been conducted for residential, commercial and industrial consumers in Dhaka City. Consumer responses were unsatisfactory for the satisfaction parameters set especially for quantity and quality. Short term and long term price elasticity of demand of tapped-water for residential and commercial consumers are -0.53 and -0.114 respectively. Price responsiveness of demand for commercial consumers is less then residential consumers measured for short term. However, willingness to pay is 6.6 and 17 times higher for residential and commercial consumers correspondingly. Different pricing options are formulated on the basis of long term for enhancing financial efficiency of DWASA in terms of cost recovery. Efficiency of pricing is investigated from economic point of view considering interests on consumers, producers and the society. From the outcomes of price-changing scenarios, it has been found that increasing tariff for residential consumers can be effective for increasing annual revenue for the water supplier. Increase in commercial water tariff produces negligible changes for supplier and in consequence no effect on annual revenue. This also confirms the findings that commercial consumers are inclined to use other sources of water supply rather than DWASA in case of increase in tariff. This study concludes that water pricing has significant potential in managing water demand and recovering financial cost of water supplier in Dhaka City depending on consumer type, quality of service and duration of implementation. Public-private partnership is considered with potential as the solution to difficulties of consumers and DWASA at the same time.

Bibliographic Details

Main Author:	Shaikh, Laila Naureen
Format:	thesis biblioteca
Language:	eng
Published:	AIT
Subjects:	P10 - Ressources en eau et leur gestion, E10 - Économie et politique agricoles, gestion des eaux, eau potable, analyse économique, prix, approvisionnement en eau, besoin en eau, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_8320, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_10463, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_2469, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_6178, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_8328, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_8323, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_810,
Online Access:	http://agritrop.cirad.fr/545563/ http://agritrop.cirad.fr/545563/1/document_545563.pdf
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!