Oxford University publishes new findings on urban water payment behaviours in Dar es Salaam

To celebrate World Water Day, Oxford University has published a new report based on the largest known dataset of urban water payment behaviour to promote sustainable finance in Africa.

Based on over 500,000 utility payment records and a survey exceeding 1,000 water users in Dar es Salaam, the report finds:

• Utility customers value and actively use multiple payment alternatives (water office, point of sale, electronic/mobile), which increase payment frequency and volume;
• Water offices dominate payment transactions (92%) but electronic and point of sale alternatives complement rather than substitute to improve payment behaviour;
• People paying at multiple alternatives out-perform all alternatives by frequency of payments (7.6 per year) and average annual revenue ($120);
• Greater distance to water offices increased electronic payments reducing social costs (travel time, queuing);
• Socio-economic characteristics (household size, education, employment, gender) did not influence payment behaviours;
• Limitations arose from a lack of data on metered usage, water quality and reliability: these data would improve understanding of variation in payment behaviours.

You can find out more about the project on Aaron Krolikowski’s blog or read the full report here.

Contact: Aaron Krolikowski – aaron.krolikowski@gmail.com