Abstract :
[en] In the past decades, the focal point of environmental protection efforts has been on urban environments and controlling key sources of pollution, while rural environmental protection has not received commensurate attention in China. With the rapid development of agriculture and economy in China, along with the continuous increase in per capital disposable income and improvement in living standards among rural residents, significant advancements have been made in rural living conditions. However, in the process of rural-urban integration, the construction of rural living environment has not received corresponding emphasis. The implementation of the Beautiful Countryside Construction policy has presented a new direction and promising prospects for the development of rural areas. To realize this vision, it is imperative to have a scientific understanding of rural living environment management, especially the current status of rural domestic sewage treatment (RDST).
However, RDST in China faces the following three dilemmas. Firstly, while the domestic sewage treatment rate in urban areas in China is reaching up to more than 95%, the domestic sewage treatment rate in rural areas is relatively weak, at only 45%. Secondly, RDST projects involve multiple stages of construction and operation, requiring substantial financial investment and often leading to a lag in RDST capacity due to high costs. Thirdly, RDST projects have strong public welfare attributes, with relatively low direct economic benefits, resulting in weak financing capabilities. Reliance primarily on fiscal funds as the financing channel, rural residents participate insufficiently, coupled with insufficient mobilization of public or private sectors, exacerbates the pressure on government finances. Therefore, to better mitigate environmental pollution caused by rural domestic sewage and advance the process of rural living environment remediation, this thesis employs a framework that based on Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) and multi-stakeholders’ participation. Focused on the theme of " Residents’ willingness to participate in domestic sewage treatment in rural China: Application of a multi-stakeholder perspective," this thesis based on the current situation of China, selects provinces such as Jilin, Shandong, Gansu, and Henan as sample provinces to acquire micro-level research data on rural residents and public or private sectors cooperation projects. The study dissects the influencing factors of rural residents' willingness to participate (WTPP) and willingness to pay (WTP), while also delving into and expanding the multi-stakeholder’s participation mechanism of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) models involving government, rural residents and public or private sectors. This endeavor aims to ensure improvements in rural living environment and contribute insights for advancing rural revitalization efforts, thus providing significant implications.
To begin with, the study focuses on the research of PPP model in RDST. This research examines PPP projects in RDST, utilizing the Life Cycle Costs Analysis (LCCA) method to investigate the LCC involved at various stages. Based on case and empirical analyses, the results show that pipe construction and electricity expenses accounted for the highest share of construction and operation and maintenance costs, at 72% and 51%, respectively. In addition, scenario analysis is employed to analyze the potential influencing factors of LCC, and the results show that the operation lifespan and population changes have a significant effect on the LCC of the PPP projects in RDST.
Furthermore, this study delves into the mechanisms of rural residents' participation in RDST construction. As direct contributors to rural domestic sewage generation, rural residents’ participation wield significant influence on the efficacy of sewage treatment in RDST. Based on the perspective of rural residents, and drawing upon survey data from rural areas, this thesis adopts binary Logit regression and Tobit models to analyze the willingness to participate (WTPP) and willingness to pay (WTP) of rural residents in RDST construction. The results revealed a higher percentage of rural residents with a positive WTPP of 79%. The WTP of rural residents ranged from 47.46 CNY/year to 63.13 CNY/year, and their affordability ranged from 16.28% to 21.65% of the construction costs of RDST facility. Moreover, it further explored key factors affecting rural residents' WTPP and WTP, including individual endowment and access to centralized water supply.
Moreover, this study investigates the impact of environmental regulations on rural residents' WTPP and WTP in the operation and maintenance of RDST. Firstly, the results indicated that more than 83.5% of rural residents demonstrated positive WTPP and WTP. The WTP for rural residents ranged from 8.14 CNY/month to 9.74 CNY/month, which was accounted to cover at least 47.55% of the operation and maintenance cost for RDST. Secondly, by employing Logit regression model, this thesis verifies the heterogeneous effects of different environmental regulations on rural residents' WTPP and WTP, as well as the interaction effects between different environmental regulations. Thirdly, rural residents' cognition as the mediating variable is used to reveal the effect mechanism of environmental regulation on rural residents' WTPP and WTP.
Finally, integrating the normal and empirical findings from the above analyses, based on the LCCA of PPP projects of RDST, as well as the research results concerning rural residents' WTPP and WTP for RDST construction and the influencing factors, alongside the examination of how environmental regulations affect rural residents' WTPP and WTP for RDST operation and maintenance, the expansion and in-depth research of multi-stakeholders’ participation mechanism for RDST is formulated. The findings of this thesis are intended to address the fundamental problems of funding shortages and operational inefficiencies in RDST, and to provide reliable recommendations and references for other developing countries.
