Animal Waste, Water Quality and Human Health

Economic evaluation 453More than 1,500 questionnaires were returned (response rate of 31 per cent). Based onthe information provided about respondent demographic and socio-economicbackground (age, household size, education, income), it was concluded that thesample was representative for the whole of the Netherlands. Sixty percent of allrespondents indicated that they swim in open waters in the Netherlands. A quarterof those who said they never swim in open waters gave water quality as their mainreason. Fifteen percent do not like swimming or cannot swim, almost ten per centonly swim in public swimming pools, and another ten per cent said he or she iseither too old or claims the water is too cold. More than half (55 per cent) of thosewho said they swim in open waters mentioned coastal locations as their mostimportant recreational bathing site. On average over the past five years, respondentsswim eight days per year. During the 2002 recreational bathing season, respondentsindicated to have swum between six and ten days. Thirteen per cent of allrespondents indicated to have suffered from symptoms of poor recreational bathingwater quality such as eye, ear and throat infections and diarrhoea. Forty per cent ofthem went to see a doctor with these symptoms.A remarkable finding is that people perceive coastal water quality and inlandfreshwater quality as being significantly different. The quality of coastal recreationalbathing water is perceived higher than the quality of inland freshwater. The sameapplies when asking respondents how dangerous they believe swimming in coastaland freshwaters is for their health (i.e. health risks as a result of water quality, notdrowning risks as a result of for instance currents or collisions with surfers orboats). Coastal waters are judged safer than inland freshwaters. A third of allrespondents feel that they are being insufficiently informed about recreationalbathing water quality. Half of all respondents feel they are sufficiently informed.Eighty-five per cent of all respondents said that they know that there exist standardsfor recreational bathing water quality in the Netherlands. A majority of sixty percent of all respondents is willing to pay extra to improve recreational bathing waterquality in the Netherlands and hence reduce the health risks involved. A quarter ofall respondents would not mind if they are unable to swim and is also not willing topay extra to improve recreational bathing water quality. Fifteen per cent have noopinion or are unsure whether they are willing to pay for improved BWQ. The mostcommon reason why people were not willing to pay was that the polluter shouldpay, followed by reasons like ‘I never swim in open water’, ‘the current situation isgood enough’ and ‘I don’t believe that the money will be spent on improvingrecreational bathing water quality’. The latter reasoning (mistrust that the moneywill be spent on what it is intended for) are indicative of what are usually called‘protest bidders’ in the literature. A large amount of protest to the WTP questioncan seriously invalidate the research. Thorough pre-testing is an essentialprerequisite to produce valid research results in this type of studies. In this study, atotal of 138 protest bidders were detected, that is, 8 per cent of the total response.This is considered a reasonable result. Combined with the fact that a majority of 62