Consumers in informal settlements and their water source choice: Evidence from a two-season survey in Freetown, Sierra Leone

This thesis attempts to understand the behavior and choices of water consumers in Freetown Sierra Leone with a particular emphasis on seasonality. Most research done on this topic has been from a production model, the idea that providing more water will drastically improve lives and remove obstacles to growth. As any service provider would perform market research on their consumers to improve sales, that same research should be performed in the water sector, even if the consumers have very little capital. Therefore, the data-gathering portion of this project targeted two informal settlements in Freetown: Portee Rokupa and Dworzark. Portee Rokupa is a seaside community, far away from the city center. Dworzark is a mountainous community in the middle of the city. In the dry season, 300 households were surveyed in each community and then those same households were revisited in the rainy season and asked the same questions. The results of these surveys will help fill in knowledge gaps, providing information based on the experience of those who face water scarcity every day and who face the true consequences of water policy and projects. Combining the results of this project with the professional knowledge of policymakers and civil engineers will help to make more pragmatic and sustainable water investments in the future.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Agricultural & Applied Econ

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• Waters, Brian Mahayie

Contributors dc:contributor

• McNamara, Paul
• Ridley, William
• Doussard, Marc

• Water
• Willingness To Pay
• Informal Settlements
• Sierra Leone

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2022 Brian Waters

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/115437

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F115437