SUMMARY ( Group 6) 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1.

Background

Economic of the world is developing, environmental problem becomes increasingly serious and it is the top concern of many countries. Lying in the focus economic region in the South, Thu Dau Mot city is interested in the improvement of environmental quality, social life and welfare. In which outstanding issue is domestic, industrial and hospital wastewter. A survey of 400 households in Thu Dau Mot town where separate systems are being developed under the assistance of JICA has been conducted. This report present the results from this households survey conducts in Thu Dau Mot on their environmental attitudes and the willing to pay to connect the households to the wastewater system. 1.2. Overview of Binh Duong province

Binh Duong province borders with Binh Phuoc province, Tay Ninh province, Dong Nai province and Ho Chi Minh city. The GDP growth rate in Binh Duong reached 15.32% per annum during 2001-2008, one of the provinces with the highest GDP growth in Viet Nam. In 2007, the master-plan on scio-economic development of Binh Duong province up to 2020 was approved by the government. Environmental protection was also addressed in the master-plan. The general viewpoint is that economic growth must be associated

witth social development and environmental protection, striving for the target of preventing and minimizing environmental pollution.

1.3.

Overview of Thu Dau Mot town.

Thu Dau Mot, capital city of Binh Duong province, includes 9 wards and 3 communes. Thu Dau Mot city lies in the focus economic region in the south. During recent years, Thu Dau Mot maintains the GDP growth rate of 20-22% (15.3% for whole Binh Duong province and 6-7% for whole Viet Nam) 1.4. Overview of the domestic wastewater drainage project in Thu Dau Mot.

The project in Thu Dau Mot is planned that from May to Sep 2010. The PMU will call for bid and select the contractee for project implementation. The project will include 4 phases. As a plan, it is expected that around 30-40% of households will be connected to the domestic wastewater system in Thu Dau Mot by 2020. 1.5. Objective of the study.

Overall objective: To assess the household willingness to pay to connect to the sewerage system and socio-economic characteristics which may explain the extent of the willingness to pay Specific objectives: To describe the socio-economic characteristics of the survey households and respondents To investigate the respondents perceptions and attitudes on environmental issues in Thu Dau Mot town characteristics To assess the household willingness tp pay to connect to the sewerage system in Thu Dau Mot town To determine the factors or socio-economic characteristics which may explain the willingness to pay of the survey households 2. METHODOLOGY:

1.1. Primary data collection methods. 5 investigators through survey of TDM town have obtained the primary data. Specific appendix 1: survey template 1.2. Secondary data collection methods 5 investigators with the help of local leaders through survey of TDM town have obtained the secondary data .The data is statistical through the tables and figures in this article. 1.3. Methods of investigation 1.3.1. Basic investigation Investigation factors affecting the household WTP through descriptive analysis such as Gender, Educational level of respondents, Occupation of respondents and WTP, Age of respondents and WTP, Household population and WTP 1.3.2. Methods of sociological investigation To investigate the respondents perceptions and attitudes on environmental issues in Thu Dau Mot town characteristics and assess the household willingness to pay to connect to the sewerage system in Thu Dau Mot town; At first, some questions on general issues on economic development were designed to get their attitudes, and then the specific questions on environmental issues were proposed for the respondents. 1.3.3. Anket methods Answer the questionnaire on paper with two types of questions (open and closed) Specific appendix 1: survey template. The sample strategy to ensure the representatives of 400 selected households in 6 targeted wards in Thu Dau Mot was developed. 207 households were interviewed with

closed-ended questionnaire while 194 households were interviewed with payment card questions 1.4. The data was processed by Excel software. The local leader designed the excel sheets for data entry: one with closed-ended questionnaire and one with payment card questionnaire. After the survey, each enumerator clarified the valid households and made the data entry following the guidance from local leader. All data from 401 valid households were checked and entered into computer. The data was transferred to SPSS for analysis. 1.5. Collecting secondary data Rapid Rural Assessment (PRA) methods Improve the quality of the environment for the people in the TDM town 2. Analytical methods. The article used two analysis regression and descriptive to identify the factors affecting the household WTP. The descriptive analysis shows that gender, education, occupation and income level of respondents, and expenditure, income level of households were factors seemingly affecting the household WTP. The results of regression analysis shows the household income, type of questionnaire & respondents environmental awareness, and the age of respondents were statistically determinants of households WTP at 1%, 5% and 10% significant levels.

3. STUDY RESULTS 3.1. Socioeconomic characteristics of survey households A total of 401 respondents were interviewed. Of those respondents, the male accounted for 37.1% while the figure for the female was 62.6%. The average age of respondents was 48.1 years (ranging from 18 to 74). Almost all respondents (96.5%) were married. b. Survey households: The average number of the people in one survey households was 4.68 persons (ranging

from 1 to 15 persons per household). One survey household had 3.38 persons with the age of 18 and above (ranging from 1 to 9 persons). However, the number of person having the paid jobs was 2.24 persons per households (between 0 and 8 persons). Generally, the survey households have many good assets for their lives. Most of the households (68.9%) had the 2009 monthly expenditure between 2-6 million VND. Around 9% of the households expended between 1-2 million VND per month and around 20% expended more than 6 million VND per month. The highest share of the households (22.9%) was found to have the expenditure between 3-4 million VND per month. It was found that most of the households (83.3%) had the monthly income less than 9 million VND in 2009. The share of the households with monthly income of less than 2 million VND was 11.7%, and with monthly income of between 2-6 million was 52.4%. Almost the survey households is satisfied with their income level (Around 60% of the households stated that their income was for good quality of life and for some saving). About income between 2008 and 2009, around 53.6% revealed that there was no change and 58.9% of the survey households confirmed that their household income was improved and significantly improved over the next 5 years. When to be asked to assess their living condition by themselves, 65.3% of the respondents thought their household living condition was in average, while 16.9% said it was good and 13.7% claimed it was bad. 3.2. Attitudes and perceptions of respondents on environment in TDM: In order to assess the attitudes and perception of the respondents on the environmental issues in TDM town, a series of questions was proposed for respondents to get their answers. At first, some questions on general issues on economic development were designed to get their attitudes, then the specific questions on environmental issues were proposed for the respondents. 3.2.1. The priority of objectives to achieve

We had five objectives which the authorities of Binh Duong Province may try to achieve were listed. More than 88% of respondents considered that the priorities for Binh Duong was already included in five listed objectives. It was found that 34.8% of the respondents thought the first important objective would be the economic growth promotion while 29% believed it would be health care service improvement and 21.3% considered it would be the water pollution reduction. The second important objective was considered the health care service improvement by 32.2%, the school and education improvement by 22.9%.

Of those five objectives, the water pollution reduction was quite important objectives as 69.3% thought it would be one of the three most important objectives to achieve, and 21.3% considered it as the most important objective. Therefore, it could be confirmed that water pollution reduction would play quite very important role for the people in TDM town. 3.2.2. The environmental issues management A significant share of respondents (15.2%), however, disclosed that they had never heard about those issues. For better awareness of environmental issues, it was suggested more dissemination on environments through mass media and other should be promoted in the

futures.

Around 85% of respondents in TDM town disagreed with the assumption that TDM Town needs to accelerate the industrialization and urbanization to increase jobs and incomes even if this implies increasing pollution and reducing environmental quality in TDM Town. Their concern on environmental quality is therefore not only for current generation, but also for the next generation. 3.2.3. Opinions about stakeholders and contributions for environmental protection Almost of all respondents (98.7%) agreed or strongly agreed with the statement in the Environmental Protection Law of Viet Nam that Environmental Protection is the cause of the whole society, the right as well responsibility of state agencies, organizations, households and individuals.

It was found that 3S program participation were thought by 33.4% of respondents as the most important one. More than 98% of respondents believed that those listed types of contribution were enough and they did not add any other types of contribution more. 3.2.4. Water source for daily life and their discharge The coverage of clean water network in TDM was still limited. Besides, They did not want to change to the use of the clean water even the pipe was already installed at the gate of their house since they did not want to change their current pipe system and the installment would cost them significant amount of money. Up to now, there was no treatment system for domestic water in TDM town. It means that

all household wastewater in TDM town went into the canals and rivers without any treatments. 3.3. Sewerage connection plan One of the projects to mitigate the environmental pollution and to protect the public health is to have a sewage system to collect all the wastewater discharged from households in Thu Dau Mot Town, and to bring this wastewater to a wastewater treatment plant for treatment. In order to make it easier for the households in the wards to pay for the connection to the sewer pipe, the Action Plan would allow all households to pay for the connection by means a monthly payment for a period of 2 years. After the introduction, the respondents were firstly asked whether they voted in favor of the action plan if the action plan would cost the household nothing at all. It was found that 98% of respondents voted for the action plan while 2% (8 respondents) did not do so. The main reasons of why those respondents did not vote for the action plan were that those respondents would not like to change the sewerage system in their households. Most of them stated that they just built up their houses and if they connect to the sewerage system installed by the project, they would have to dig out their house floor. It would cost them a lot of money and would make their houses become messy and they therefore refused to connect to the sewerage system. 3.4. Estimates of the willingness-to-pay: The respondents were asked about how much the household would be willing to pay to connect to the new sewer system through two type of question. That is closed-ended question and payment-card question. Of total 401 respondents, 207 were interviewed with closed-ended questions and 194 were with the payment-card question. With 207 respondents of the closed-ended question, 203 respondents voted in favor of action plan for new sewer connection, of which 68 were interviewed with bid level of 100 thousand VND, 70 were with bid level of 150 thousand VND, and 65 were with the level of 200 thousand VND.

Based on the survey results, using the Turnbull estimation with the formula of MWTP =Tj (Pi Pi+1). Where Tj is the bid levels and Pi is the probability of respondents voting in favor of action plan within the respective bid level. The MWTP for one survey households was 122.25 thousand VND per month for a period of 2 years. But, the respondents who voted for the action plan with offered bid, the average maximum WTP was 161 thousand VND per household while for the respondents who did not vote for the plan with the offered bid, the maximum WTP was only 63.5 thousand VND per, household. The average maximum WTP for all respondents were 118.84 thousand VND per households. For the payment-card question, at first the different monthly payments for a period of 2 year and 190 out of 194 respondents with the payment card question selected different monthly payments with various probabilities. Based on the survey result, the estimation shows that the mean WTP of households was 103.43 thousand VND per household. 3.5. Factors affecting the household WTP: 3.4.1. Factors affecting the household WTP through descriptive analysis (binary analysis) 1/ (1) Gender: The female respondents offered the lower household WTP. For closed-ended type, the WTP offered by the male and female respondents was similar. For payment-card type, the female would like to pay significantly less than the male. (2) Educational level of respondents: The respondents with low educational level would like to pay less than those with high educational levels. (3) Occupation of respondents and WTP

Household WTP of the workers/staff at the private enterprises and unemployment was smaller than government staff or staff of state enterprises, those who do self-business, pensioners and farmers offered higher WTP (4). Age of respondents and WTP: Younger respondents tended to give higher household WTP and the differences were not very significant (5) Household population and WTP: Smaller household size tended to give higher household WTP and the differences were not very significant 6) Household labor force and WTP: The little difference of WTP between two groups of households (households with 3 persons over 18 and with more than 3 persons over 18) was found and the difference was not very clear (7) Household expenditure and WTP: The households with smaller expenditure paid the smaller WTP and the differences between expenditure groups were quite significant and clear (8) Respondents income and the WTP: The respondents with smaller income level paid the smaller WTP. The difference between respondents income group were quite significant and clear (9) Households income levels and the WTP: the respondents of households with smaller income level paid the smaller WTP and the differences between household income groups were quite significant and clear (10). The WTP and the household opinions on expenditure and income:The respondents of wealthy households ( 127 and 140 thousand) paid more than the respondents of low income( 65 or 73 thousand VND). (11) The WTP and household living conditions: The WTP of households with good living condition (113 thousands VND) paid more than the WTP of households with bad

living condition (57 thousand VND) and average living condition (113 thousand VND). The difference between groups was quite significant. (12) Respondents priority on the objectives of Binh Duong authority: The WTP of the respondents who ranked economic growth promotion and education improvements as the first objectives (126-128 thousand VND per month on average)paid more than the WTP of the respondents who thought healthcare service improvement(93 thousand VND per month) (13) Respondents hearing on environmental issues: The respondents informed that they heard about environmental issues on Thu Dau Mot Town many times on TV(118 thousand VND per month) offered the higher WTP than those who have never heard about the issue (99 thousand VND) and a few time hearings(110 thousand VND). (14) Respondents assessment on environmental problems in TDM: The respondents who considered the lack of wastewater treatments as the first important (120.8 thousand VND in average) paid higher than Other respondents who considered air pollution, pollution of water canal& river, and solid waste disposal as the first important(100109 thousand VND). (15) Respondents attitudes on sacrifices of environmental quality for industrialization & urbanization: Many respondents disagreed and strongly disagreed with the sacrifices of environmental and they agreed to pay more than other respondents who had no idea or agreed with the trade-off (16) Respondents attitudes on sacrifices of income for environmental quality improvement: Many respondents (over 60%) were willing to scarify some income for better environmental quality in order that next generation can benefit from and Those respondents offered the higher WTP in compared with other respondents (17) Respondents knowledge on wastewater discharge situation

68% of respondents knew wastewater discharge situation. Those respondents offered higher WTP (115.4 thousand VND per month) than the respondents who did not know this situation (only 89.3 thousand VND per month) (18) Respondents opinions on hygiene condition improvement in TDM: The respondents considered improved hygiene condition in TDM were important And very important task and those respondents offered significantly higher WTP than others (19) Respondents opinions on household payment for wastewater treatment: Those yes respondents offered much higher WTP (116.7 thousand VND per month) while other respondents offered the WTP of only less than 90 thousands VND per month 3.4.2. Factors affecting the household WTP through regression analysis: A linear regression function is applied to determine the factors affecting the Willingness to pay to connect the households to the sewerage system. The dependent variable is the households willingness to pay. In the function the maximum WTP in closed-ended questions is used while mean WTP in payment card question is used. The independent variables are WTP, Gender, Age, Marriage, Education, Population, HH_Expenditure, Res_income, Working _person, HH_income, Envi_Awareness, Question_dummy Output of regression analysis of factor affecting household WTP are Household income, Type of question, the environmental awareness of respondents, The age of respondents, The older the respondent. 4. Conclusion In order to promote household sewerage connection in cities where separate sewerage systems are being developed under the assistance of JICA, a survey of 400 households in 6 targeted wards in Thu Dau Mot town where separate sewerage systems are being developed was conducted to understand the residents attitudes on environmental issues and their willingness to pay to connect the households to the

wastewater system. 207 households were interviewed with closed-ended questionnaire while 194 households were interviewed with payment card questions. The mean WTP for one survey household was 122.25 thousand VND per month for closed-ended questions using Turnbull estimation and it was 103.43 thousand per month for payment card questions. With descriptive show that gender, education, occupation and income level of respondents, and expenditure, income level of households were factors seemingly affecting the household WTP. With the results of regression analysis: the household income, type of questionnaire & respondents environmental awareness, and the age of respondents were statistically determinants of households WTP at 1%, 5% and 10% significant levels. 5. Advantage and disadvantage: Advantage: - We can see results of this reports achieved through sample surveys and this method is fully consistent with this case - Sampling survey is usually much faster than thorough investigation, so sampling survey is highly opportune - As little investigation unit, number of employees and investigate cost are reduced. So sampling survey will save on cost. - As little investigation unit so it may expand the content of investigation and go into the details of topic. - Data collected in the sampling survey have relatively high accuracy - Through this method we may still come to the reliable conclusion without thorough investigation Disadvantage:

- Prepare, adjust and test questionnaires many times to made ready for implementation. - The key of household members is not present at that time of the survey, or she/he is busy, not satisfied to answer the questionnaire because it is too long. - Repeat and explain the questions many times for the respondent to understand