Gravity Flow Water Supply
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14. 3 WILLINGNESS TO PAY One of the fundamental goals of the economic evaluation is to check that the operating costs of the proposed system is within reach of what the end users are willing to pay, to ensure the project is sustainable once the donor has disappeared. This means the decision as to whether the investment and operating quotes are acceptable is not down to the designer, but down to the end users. Therefore the person who makes the decisions should be able to communicate well with the future users. Sometimes the information is close at hand, by observing the cost of traditional systems:
The techniques to work out how much someone would pay go beyond the scope of this book, but a good place to start is the Willingness-to-pay surveys published by WEDC, which can be found free on their website here: http://wedc.lboro.ac.uk/publications/details.php?book=1%2084380%20014%204
14. 4 COSTS Any activity generates two kinds of costs. The investment costs relates to the purchase of the equipment, materials and installation of the system. The operating costs refer to the day-to-day running costs.
Š Santiago Arnalich
Arnalich. Water and habitat
www.arnalich.com