Australians say they’ll pay for everyone to have good quality drinking water
Australians’ are willing to pay more to ensure ‘good quality’ drinking water than what it would cost to provide it. This includes safe, clean drinking water to hundreds of remote communities where this basic service is lacking. A multidisciplinary team of researchers highlight key findings from their research on the benefits, costs and enabling conditions to deliver good drinking water to all Australians.
The research, published in Nature Water, asked over 3,500 Australians across the country whether they would be willing to pay to ensure ‘good quality’ drinking water for at least 260,000 people in 395 in small, rural and remote communities that currently lacking this level of service. It asked participants whether they would ‘vote’ in favour of a proposed program to deliver good quality drinking water to 100%, 50% or 25% of those affected, under four possible increases to their household taxes ($50, $200, $500 or $1,000 per year).
Importantly, given that almost all urban Australians already have good drinking water quality, there was no statistically significant difference in the willingness to pay between urban and rural households. On average, of those surveyed, Australian households were prepared to pay between $324 and $847 per year for 10 years to ensure good drinking water for all in Australia.