Municipal Solid Waste Services before Prolonged Disruption in Myanmar: A Pre-2020 Snapshot of Service Access, Citizen Satisfaction and Willingness to Pay in Kayin State

Abstract

This study revisits the first author’s earlier research on municipal solid waste management in Kayin State, Myanmar, to reconstruct a theoretically informed pre-disruption snapshot of citizen–service relationships in late 2019. The empirical material derives from a community survey of 457 respondents conducted in Hlaingbwe, Hpa-An, and Kawkayeik townships between 23 October and 5 November 2019. The present article reappraises the published aggregate evidence through five analytical domains: service access and disposal practices, provider arrangements, institutional awareness, satisfaction, and willingness to pay for improved services. Approximately 82% of respondents received some form of waste collection, but access varied markedly across townships, and among respondents without collection approximately 79% reported burning their waste. Service delivery was institutionally heterogeneous, particularly in Hpa-An, where municipal, private, and community-based providers coexisted. Institutional awareness was weak: only about 19% knew of other services offered by Development Affairs Organisations, and approximately 94% were unaware of how garbage-collection revenues were used. Nevertheless, around 71% evaluated services as fair, satisfactory, or very satisfactory, and among this group approximately 57% were willing to pay more for improved services. The findings portray a pre-disruption municipal system that was operational but incomplete, combining substantial service reach with access gaps, low institutional legibility, and heterogeneous support for service improvement. The 2019 evidence is not treated as representative of contemporary Kayin State or as a longitudinal baseline; it provides a historically bounded reference point for future research on continuity and change in local public-service provision.