posted on 2024-01-19, 01:04authored byHiroaki Tomoi, Clara MacLeod, Taeko Moriyasu, Sheillah Simiyu, Ian Ross, Oliver Cumming, Laura Braun
Achieving universal
access to safely managed sanitation services
is one of the Sustainable Development Goal 6 targets (SDG6.2). The
cost and availability of services to ensure the safe management of
on-site sanitation, such as pit latrines and septic tanks, can be
major barriers for poor households. Particularly, fecal sludge emptying
services have become increasingly important due to the growing urban
population. This review aims to scope the literature on stated and
revealed willingness to pay (WTP) for emptying on-site sanitation
systems and to identify determinants of WTP and gaps in knowledge.
We performed electronic searches of six databases. After deduplication,
1846 records were identified, of which 14 were included in the review.
In these studies, we identified 26 distinct scenarios that reported
mean or median WTP values for emptying services and their market price
(i.e., price at which the services were provided). Among the 26 scenarios,
77% (n = 20) reported that WTP was lower than the
market price. We identified 20 statistically significant determinants
of WTP, which can be leveraged when developing or improving manual
and mechanical emptying services to attract more customers. Future
research should consider services that adopt flexible pricing or mobile
money payment and optimize their emptying operations to increase WTP.
Validating the effectiveness of such services in solving the WTP–market
price imbalance is a significant knowledge gap.