Assessing Willingness to Pay for Sanitation Services in the Village of Shtiqën

Since 2013, SHUKALB has been collaborating with Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), USA, on undertaking small water and environment projects that involve a team of WPI students working in Albania for a period of 8 weeks.  Last year, the WPI team with the support of SHUKALB undertook a project titled “Assessing Willingness to Pay for Sanitation Services in the Village of Shtiqën”.

The main goal of this project was to assess the residents of Shtiqën village in municipality of Kukes, Albania, understanding, perception, and willingness to pay for the construction and service of a sewer and wastewater treatment system in their community, as well as develop a guide to help water utility employees have more informed conversations with and anticipate the needs of their customers about willingness to pay for a wastewater treatment solution.

As part of the project, the WPI team conducted background research to understand the challenges and social nuances of implementing a wastewater treatment solution in rural areas, and this was further supplemented by interviews and photo documentation.

The WPI team presented the final study report and the outcome of the project on 12 December 2023, in Tirana, during the 10^th anniversary event of the Albania Project Center at WPI, among other student project presentations from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute.  Also present at the event were Prof. Melissa Butler and Prof. Robert Hersh from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

For more details on the project outcome, you can read the final report at this link.