Rural piped water connection project – Time preference elicitation experiment

Overview

In Vietnam’s Red River Delta, the government has invested in the construction of large distribution networks using safe, arsenic-free water sources to increase access to sustainable clean water and foster equity. The suitability of these piped water schemes as a long-term solution to arsenic mitigation is dependent on financial contributions from local households. Piped water connection fees and monthly usage tariffs are structured to recover a portion of the cost of capital infrastructure as well as ongoing operations and maintenance expenditures. However, the availability of cheap, convenient and often free alternatives, along with low awareness of arsenic contamination, has limited the demand for piped water. Water pricing guidelines fail to take into account the household valuation of clean water, availability of alternatives, and the potential negative externalities associated with continued private groundwater pumping. As a result, take-up and monthly usage conditional on take-up are far lower than desired and insufficient to achieve cost recovery targets, thus threatening the sustainability of the systems.

One component of the study was a field experiment that determined household time preferences in My Huong commune. Time preferences are a key determinant of household decisions whether to connect to the piped water supply scheme.

 

Main Tasks:

  • Conduct experimental pilot;
  • Establish household listings (My Huong census);
  • Conduct training for enumerators;
  • Conduct experiment;
  • Data management and cleaning;
  • Complete experiment report.

TIME

9/2015 – 11/2015

CLIENT