Willingness to Pay for Water Quality Improvements of River Jhelum: A Contingent Valuation Method

Abstract

Management of water and sanitation is one of the important sustainable development goals. It has become a top priority of all nations to achieve goals by 2030. However, the urban stress in many developing countries has deteriorated the quality and extent of freshwater bodies which in turn affected the welfare of the people. The River Jhelum in Jammu and Kashmir, a fragile ecosystem in the north-western Himalayas, is deteriorating due to growing anthropogenic pressures, primarily from untreated urban sewage and drainage that flow directly into its waters.  There is a need to provide critical inputs to policymakers about the benefits of water quality improvements of River Jhelum for its sustainable management. Therefore, this paper tried to estimate the economic benefits of water quality improvements of River Jhelum using the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM). The construction of community sewage pits as a scenario with monthly cleaning fee/donations as payment vehicles were used to estimate the willingness to pay of 280 respondents selected from the on-the-bank user population of Kashmir division across the course of River Jhelum. A binary logistic regression model was used to analyze the CVM survey data. The mean willingness to pay estimated from the results was ₹401.19 per month per household by utilizing the single-bound dichotomous CV question format. The respondents revealed their preference for improving the water quality of River Jhelum and the results are very substantial for policymakers in choosing an appropriate policy for sustainable management of River Jhelum in Kashmir.