The policy implications of urban open space commercial vegetable farmers' willingness and ability to pay for reclaimed water for irrigation in Kumasi, Ghana

The acute waste management problems, coupled with the proliferation of small scale industries in many developing countries, make low quality water treatment before use inevitable in the long run. These industries have the potential to discharge effluent containing chemicals and heavy metals into the environment.

The indiscriminative use of pharmaceutical products by households in many of these countries is another source of health concern. Low quality water treatment in these countries has however been hampered by the high cost of infrastructure provision and maintenance. Cost-sharing among stakeholders appears to be a promising strategy to finance and maintain the wastewater treatment infrastructure.

In this study therefore, the willingness and ability of urban open space commercial vegetable farmers to pay for reclaimed water for irrigation purposes has been assessed. One hundred open space commercial vegetable farmers and four vegetable farmers' associations were selected and interviewed in Kumasi in Ghana using semi-structured interview schedules and interview guides respectively.

The results of the study show that approximately three out of every five vegetable farmers were willing to pay for reclaimed water for irrigation. The results further show that the probability of being willing to pay by farmers who agreed that the current water they used for irrigation was harmful is approximately 5.3 times greater than that of those who did not.

The analysis of the farmers' ability to pay revealed that all the farmers would be capable of paying for reclaimed water at a price of US$0.11/m3. This has implications for land tenure security and vegetable consumers' willingness to pay higher prices for the produce.