Households’ Willingness to Pay for Water Hyacinth Control in Lake Tana

Abstract

his study analysed rural households’ WTP for control of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) infestation in Lake Tana in terms of cash and man-days. A contingent valuation method through double bounded dichotomous choice was used to elicit WTP of 276 households in Fogera district, western Ethiopia. It was found that initial bid price, age of household head, labour availability, trust in the government, place of residence, household size, and income to influence the probability of households WTP for control of water hyacinth. The mean WTP was estimated to be 26.41 ETB and 3.23 man-days per month per household with welfare aggregation of ETB 19,671,963 and 2,404,441 man-days per year. The study underscores that in utilizing the public resource for water hyacinth control activities, accountability and transparency should be strengthened.