Research Report: 129: Are we willing to pay for good river Water Quality?

Willingness to pay for achieving good status across rivers in the Republic of Ireland,

Summary: One of the main objectives of this research was to examine public attitudes towards water quality related issues and the importance that the general public places on these compared with other potential environment issues.

This research sought to explore the general public’s attitudes towards water quality issues and estimate willingness to pay (WTP) values for achieving good status across rivers in the Republic of Ireland as set down under the European Union Water Framework
Directive (WFD). The WFD mandates Member States to achieve good status across all surface waters by 2015. Derogations from this target have to be proven based on infeasibility or disproportionate cost. Hence, quantification of benefits is an important element in the assessment of the proportionality of costs in the implementation of the WFD.