The effect of physical accessibility and service level of water supply on economic accessibility: a case study of Bandung City, Indonesia

Abstract

Achieving equitable access to water, in the sense of both physical and economic accessibility, remains a challenge. The article evaluates these two types of accessibility across households of different income groups in Central Cikapundung Basin, Indonesia. Higher-income households are more likely to use piped water, bottled water, or combinations thereof and have higher water expenditures than their lower-income counterparts. We estimate the hidden mitigation costs of groundwater extraction and water boiling and highlight the importance of incorporating mitigation costs when assessing the impacts of poor service quality of water supply on household water expenditure and affordability.