Urban households’ demand for improved solid waste management service in Bahir Dar city: A contingent valuation study

Abstract Primary data from 350 households were collected to assess the solid waste management system of Bahir Dar city, to elicit urban households’ willingness to pay for improved solid waste management service and to analyze factors affecting urban households’ willingness to pay. The survey result indicated that 22% of the respondents were satisfied with the existing waste management service. Whereas, only 29% of the sample households received solid waste management services based on weekly plan of the city municipality. The contingent valuation result revealed that the mean willingness to pay is 13 ETB per month which is higher than the monthly flat fee of urban households. The model result demonstrated that education level of household head, monthly aggregate income, access to solid waste management service, disease outbreak, number of children and quantity of waste generated per week had statistically significant positive effect on households’ willingness to pay. But sex of the household head had statistically significant negative effect on households’ willingness to pay. The implications of the findings are that the municipality of Bahir Dar city should consider the demand of households for improved solid waste management service and these significant variables to design and implement improved solid waste management services.