ADVANCEMENT OF THE SCIENCE
borne diseases. When PYI increases yearly, households spend more money to purchase protective measures that can reduce the probabiltiy of waterborne diseases by 10%. Interestingly, the availability of media, espe- cially radio or TV programs on hygiene and health awareness, do not help to reduce the probability of waterborne diseases, as households are not willing to use their media-related knowledge to protect their children. In our study, however, PYI does not seem to play any major role in reducing waterborne diseases. Lastly, HWB at the household level is still a major factor in reducing waterborne diseases, and an increase in this behavior results in a visible decrease in the number of children who remain sick. To support the findings of our study, Aydamo et al. (2024) found that mothers who had knowledge of handwashing practices were 4 times more likely to engage in proper handwashing compared with mothers from households with limited knowledge; these results were statistically significant at the 5% level. Addi- tionally, we found that HWB of mothers was positively and significantly linked to their knowledge of handwashing practices, a favorable attitude toward the practice, and the household’s water security. Their study further showed that households with secure water access were 1.7 times more likely to demonstrate a positive attitude toward handwashing than households without a reliable water supply ( p = .05).
FIGURE 2
Frequency of Waterborne Diseases Over the Past 6 Months for Survey Respondents
>10 Days 4%
8–10 Days 9%
1 Day 20%
5–7 Days 25%
2–4 Days 42%
Interestingly, our survey found that not everyone is willing to pay more for improved drinking water, with 35% of respondents saying that they cannot afford this amount. Many respondents also mentioned that it is the role of the government to improve drink- ing water quality, and they could not ascer- tain the quality of the drinking water service even after paying more. Summary Results of Poisson and Logit Regression Models Based on the results presented in Table 2, we analyzed the findings using two econometric models. The first model, Poisson regression, shows that as a child’s age (CAG) increased by 1 year, the likelihood of being affected by water- borne diseases decreased, which was statisti- cally significant at the 10% level. For parental education (PED), our results indicate that with each additional year of schooling completed by the parents, the probability of their children contracting waterborne diseases declined sig- nificantly, with significance at the 5% level.
Furthermore, household participation in nongovernmental organization (HNP) activities exhibit a negative and significant association with the incidence of waterborne diseases, suggesting that community engage- ment through NGOs enhances awareness and preventive practices. HNP is statistically sig- nificant at the 1% level. The availability of fresh water (FWA) is also important: When households have a 24-hr water supply, the prevalence of diseases is greatly reduced, with the critical threshold at 10%. Expectedly, handwashing behavior (HWB) is strongly and statistically negatively correlated (at a 5% level) with incidences of waterborne diseases, which underscores the significance of good hygiene behavior. Our findings are further supported by the second logit regression model. This model shows that higher PED has a substantial negative impact on the likelihood of chil- dren getting infected with waterborne dis- eases. Parental yearly income (PYI) can significantly affect the reduction of water-
Results of the Willingness to Pay Estimation
As described in the methods, KWASA oper- ates a water supply system that sources, treats, and distributes surface water in Rup- sha Upazila, an administrative subdivision of Khulna District. The Asian Development Bank supported a project to reduce Khul- na’s reliance on unsustainable groundwater extraction. According to KWASA, households in Rupsha Upazila face a crisis for access to fresh water. Many tube wells are ineffective in providing safe water, with some marked red due to arsenic contamination. WTP for Better Water Service = β 0 + β 1 CAG + β 2 CSX + β 3 PED + β 4 SLY + β 5 PYI + β 6 HFM + β 7 HNP + β 8 RNT + β 9 PLF + β 10 NNC + β 11 HWB + β 12 CCW + ui (2)
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Volume 89 • Number 3
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