Assessing willingness to pay for a solar-powered desalination device in Moroccan rural communities under climate...

Climate change is affecting the global water cycle, leading to a growing imbalance between drinking water demand and supply in many countries, particularly developing countries such as Morocco. Therefore, several innovative technological solutions are emerging to support safe water access. Understanding the adoption of these solutions, however, requires assessing the willingness to pay (WTP) of respondents and the factors shaping their decisions. This study was conducted among rural populations in Morocco in 2024 to estimate their WTP for a solar-powered, portable desalination device currently under development in a research lab. The contingent valuation method questionnaire with closed-ended dichotomous choice WTP questions was administrated to 446 respondents in four rural regions. Results show that income, education, and bid price are the most significant determinants of WTP. Objective water quality measures and subjective perceptions have a limited effect in baseline models but become more relevant once regional interactions are introduced, revealing notable disparities between regions. Furthermore, including people's answers collected with expanding payment options in follow-up questions substantially increases reported WTP, from 1.9 kMAD to 6.4 kMAD and finally to between 17.9 kMAD, indicating that rural households' WTP is substantially limited by their income and the necessity for the government to consider providing relevant public subsidies.