Household Deficiency in Demand for Water: Do Water Source and Travel Time Matter?

Nunoo, Jacob and Koomson, Isaac and Orkoh, Emmanuel (2015): Household Deficiency in Demand for Water: Do Water Source and Travel Time Matter?

Abstract

Despite the massive commitment by policy makers and stakeholders to increase the supply of water to households in Ghana, many households have a deficiency in their self-reported daily quantity of water required for drinking and for general use. This paper focuses on the effect of water source and travelling time on households’ deficiency in demand for water using the Sixth Round of the Ghana Living Standards survey. A Tobit regression analysis of data on 2,843 households reveals that a one minute increase in travelling time increases household deficiency in water demand by about 49 percent. Also, compared to pipe in dwelling/yard/plot, all other sources of water to the households come with greater levels of water deficiency, with unprotected well/spring/river-stream/dam-lake-pond generating the greatest (10.5 litres) levels of deficiency. Other significant predictors of household deficiency in water demand are per capita disposable income, number of rooms in the household, sex of the household head and regular payment of water bills. Government policies aimed at addressing household deficiency in water demand should focus on making more resources available to the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) and the Community Water and Sanitation Agency so as to achieve more coverage of water accessible to both urban and rural households.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Water Deficiency, Travel Time, Water Source, Shadow Price, Pipe
• Subjects: D - Microeconomics > D0 - General > D01 - Microeconomic Behavior: Underlying Principles; D - Microeconomics > D1 - Household Behavior and Family Economics > D11 - Consumer Economics: Theory; L - Industrial Organization > L9 - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities > L95 - Gas Utilities ; Pipelines ; Water Utilities; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q3 - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation > Q31 - Demand and Supply ; Prices; R - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics > R2 - Household Analysis > R22 - Other Demand

References

Akpalu, W. (2012). Travel Distance and Household’s Demand for Water in Ghana. CEERAC Working Paper No. 006, Center for Environmental Economics Research & Consultancy, Ghana.

Altaf, M. A. (1994). The economics of household response to inadequate water supplies: evidence from Pakistan. Third World Planning Review (United Kingdom).

Arbués, F., Barberán, R., & Villanúa, I. (2000). Water price impact on Residential Water Demand in the city of Zaragoza, a Dynamic panel data approach. In 40th European Congress of the European Regional Studies Association (ERSA) in Barcelona, Spain (pp. 30-31).

Arbués, F., Garcıa-Valiñas, M. Á., & Martınez-Espiñeira, R. (2003). Estimation of residential water demand: a state-of-the-art review. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 32(1), 81-102.

Asante, F., Berger, T., Engel, S., & Iskandarani, M. (2002). Water security in the Ghanaian Volta Basin: Patterns, determinants, and consequences. Quarterly Journal of International Agriculture, 41(1), 145-167.

Basani, M., Isham, J., & Reilly, B. (2008). The determinants of water connection and water consumption: empirical evidence from a Cambodian household survey. World Development, 36(5), 953-968.

Briscoe, J., de Castro, P. F., Griffin, C., North, J., & Olsen, O. (1990). Toward equitable and sustainable rural water supplies: a contingent valuation study in Brazil. The World Bank Economic Review, 4(2), 115-134.

Cameron, A. C., & Trivedi, P. K. (2005). Microeconometrics: methods and applications. Cambridge university press.

Casey, J. F., Kahn, J. R., & Rivas, A. (2006). Willingness to pay for improved water service in Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil. Ecological Economics, 58(2), 365-372.

Engel, S., Iskandarani, M., & del Pilar Useche, M. (2005). Improved water supply in the Ghanaian Volta Basin: who uses it and who participates in community decision-making? Intl Food Policy Res Inst.

Ghana Statistical Service (2013). Ghana Living Standards Survey. Report of the sixth Round (GLSS6). Accra: Ghana Statistical Service.

Larson, B., B. Minten, & Razafindralambo, R. (2006). Unravelling the Linkages between the Millennium Development Goals for Poverty, Education, Access to Water and Household Water Use in Developing Countries: Evidence from Madagascar. Journal of Development Studies 42(1):22–40.

Madanat, S., & Humplick, F. (1993). A model of household choice of water supply systems in developing countries. Water Resources Research, 29(5), 1353-1358.

Ministry of Health (MoH) (2001), Programme of Work 2001-2006, Annual Progress Report, Accra.

Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing (MWRWH) (2010). Water and Sanitation Sector Performance Report.

Nauges, C., & Strand, J. (2007). Estimation of Non-Tap Water Demand in Central American cities. Resource and Energy Economics, 29, 165-182.

Nauges, C., & Van Den Berg (2009). Demand for Piped and Non-piped Water Supply Services: Evidence from Southwest Sri Lanka. Environmental and Resource Economics, 42(4), 535–49.

Nketiah-Amponsah, N., Woedem, A. P., & Senadza, B. (2009). Socio-economic Determinants of Sources of Drinking Water: Some Insight from Ghana. Paper presented at the Conference on International Research on Food Security, Natural Resource Management and Rural Development, University of Hamburg.

Nunoo, J. & Acheampong B. N. (2014). Protecting Financial Investment: Agricultural Insurance in Ghana. Agricultural Finance Review. 74(2): 236-247

Persson, T. H. (2002). Household Choice of Drinking–Water Source in the Philippines. Asian Economic Journal, 16(4), 303-316.

Stoler, J., Weeks, J. R., & Otoo, R. A. (2013). Drinking water in transition: a multilevel cross-sectional analysis of sachet water consumption in Accra.

Strand, J., and I. Walker. (2005). “Water Markets and Demand in Central American Cities.” Environment and Development Economics 10(3):313–335.

Tobin, J. (1958). Estimation of relationships for limited dependent variables. Econometrica: journal of the Econometric Society, 24-36.

UNEP (2008). Vital Water Graphics – An Overview of the State of the World’s Fresh and Marine Waters, 2nd Edition. Nairobi, Kenya: UNEP and Arendal, Norway: GRID-Arendal. ISBN: 92-807-2236-0 http://www.grida.no/publications/vg/water2

Wooldridge, J. (2012). Introductory econometrics: A modern approach. Cengage Learning.

World Bank Water Demand Research Team. (1993). The demand for water in rural areas: determinants and policy implications. In The World Bank Research Observer, 8(1): 47-70.