Household Choice of Purifying Drinking Water in Cameroon

Abstract

This study contributes to the still short literature on demand for drinking water quality in Africa by modeling Cameroonian households’ choice of purifying drinking water.  Specifically, the study seeks to: analyze households’ access to water and various measures undertaken to improve water quality; identify the factors driving households’ decision to purify drinking water. Our analysis uses data from the second Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey carried out in 2006 by the National Institute of Statistics. In order to control for possible simultaneity of the choice of drinking water source and the decision to purify water or not before drinking it, a bivariate probit model is used for discrete analysis. Most previous studies have neglected to consider this issue in their analysis. Our findings suggest that households’ educational level has a positive and statistically significant impact on households’ decision to purify water before drinking it. Results also reveal that wealth quintile, health status and number of children less than five years strongly affect households’ decision. In particular, the magnitude of the wealth quintile impact on households’ decision is larger than those of the other variables. Implications for drinking water policies are discussed.