The Impact of the Privatisation of Water Supply on Households in the City of Douala in Cameroon

Abstract

Many Cameroonian households are confronted with short supply of drinking water as the state-owned water corporation failed to meet the efficient water delivery objectives. As a result, the privatisation drive took place with of course some consequent impacts. The current study is an attempt to quantify these impacts. The major impacts are in terms of decreased access to water to households by 8 percent and exposure of more than 70 percent of households to irregular water supply for more than half a month. However, some 92 percent of the households rate the quality of water obtained from the private water company good. Also, 56 percent of the households prefer the service delivery by the private company over that of the state-operated water supply. Besides, both the minimum and maximum amount households wish to pay per cubic meter of water for continued private water provision exceeds the current rate by 5.59 and 225.99 percent, respectively.

JEL Codes: Q25, L33