Valuation of salinity-free drinking water in Anowara Upazilla (sub-district) under Chattogram district of Bangladesh

The current issue of high salinity in drinking water within the climate-vulnerable coastal regions of Bangladesh has become a significant cause for concern. This is due to the increasing prevalence of hypertension, diarrhea, and skin illnesses among the population residing in the southeastern coastal districts of Bangladesh. The necessity of establishing a drinking water supply system that is free from salinity for the people of the southeastern coastal region of Bangladesh is indisputable. It is crucial to assess the value of saline-free drinking water in order to provide useful information to policymakers and implementers regarding the willingness of the population to pay for such a service. The objective of this study is to estimate the Willingness To Pay (WTP) of people of Anowara Upazilla, a coastal sub-district of Chattogram district of Bangladesh for salinity-free drinking water supply. A cross-sectional study design was used to estimate the value of salinity-free drinking water in Anowara Upazilla of Chattogram by using the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM). A Systematic sampling method was employed to survey 410 households from six salinity affected unions of Anowara with structured questionnaire. This study additionally applied binary logistic regression model to identify the significant factors that influenced the WTP of the people for receiving salinity-free drinking water. The findings of this study revealed that 69% of the surveyed population from six salinity-affected unions of Anowara was willing to get salinity-free drinking water. The estimated mean WTP for salinity-free drinking water was BDT 222.50 per month per family. The logistic regression analysis revealed that household income higher than Bangladeshi Taka (BDT) 18,000 per month (p-value: 0.022), perceiving water salinity level as moderate (p-value: 0.002) by the respondent and family size with five members (p-value: 0.046) in the household were the statistically significant factors that influenced the overall WTP of the respondents. Moreover, most respondents preferred to have salinity-free drinking water supplied to their households through the piped network. The estimated aggregated WTP was BDT 6,228,887.50, which indicates that government intervention to supply salinity-free drinking water in Anowara Upazilla will be financially feasible if the project cost remains less or equal to the aggregated WTP. The findings of the study will be useful to the environmental practitioners of Bangladesh.