An Analysis of Willingness to Pay (WTP) for Improved Water Supply in Owo Local Government, Ondo State, Nigeria

1 AN ANALYSIS OF WILLINGNESS TO PAY (WTP) FOR IMPROVED WATER 1 SUPPLY IN OWO LOCAL GOVERNMENT, ONDO STATE, NIGERIA 2 3 Abstract 4 Willingness to pay for social services is often regarded as a means of ensuring the long-term sustainability of 5 such services. This paper examines willingness to pay (WTP) for improved water supply in Owo Local 6 Government Area of Ondo State, Nigeria. Data were collected from 256 households through multi-stage 7 sampling from eleven political wards in Owo. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics and logit 8 regression. Results show that 43% of the residents obtained water from public utility while 20.3% and 18.8% 9 obtained water from well and borehole respectively. Majority of the residents (70.3%) were dissatisfied with 10 unreliable water services but were willing to pay for improved water supply (74.9%). Residents were willing to 11 pay an average sum of N1,617.64 (US$4.5) per month for improved water supply services. The results of logit 12 regression analysis revealed that gender, a frequency of water, education, household size, income, quality of 13 water and connection charges were the factors influencing residents’ willingness to pay (WTP) for improved 14 water supply services in the study area. There is a need for government to create enabling the policy for public15 private partnership in the improvement of water supply in the study area. 16 17