Abstract:
This study was carried out to assess people’s willingness to pay for improved solid
waste management (SWM) in Dodoma Municipality. The specific objectives where to
determine the residents’ willingness to pay (WTP) for improved SWM in the
Municipality, evaluate factors which influence the WTP for improved SWM in the
Municipality and to identify a suitable model for sustainable SWM in the municipality.
The primary data were collected through stratified simple random sampling with
proportionate allocation from 200 respondents from five streets which were divided into
three income groups (low, middle and high). Data were analyzed using descriptive and
quantitative methods. The choice modeling method and multinomial logit model were
employed to elicit the WTP for improved SWM and to assess the factors that determine
WTP for improved SWM. The findings’ show that the majority of the respondents
(63%) were willing to pay for improved SWM, whereby 58% were willing to pay TZS
3000 and 5% were willing to pay TZS 4000. The rest (37%) of the respondents opted
for the status quo which was TZS 2000. The findings show that collection frequency,
transport mode, disposal method, charge per month, age, marital status, education level,
occupation, quantities of solid waste generated, location of the dump, and income level
of the households were significant factors in influencing people’s willingness to pay for
improved SWM in Dodoma Municipality. In view of the main findings of the study,
several policy proposals are suggested. These include increasing trucks and collection
frequency per week; extending the study to other parts of the country, investigate the
streets which do not benefit from solid waste collection services in order to find out if
the households from those streets are willing to pay for the services, and investigation
on existing SWM at commercial and industrial centers.
