An analysis of customer satisfaction regarding infrastructure provision on solid waste collection and service quality in two income areas (Low & High) of Johar Town, Lahore

Population of Lahore has crossed over eleven million as the city has extended into its peri-urban and rural neighbourhoods. This demographic and spatial growth, along with change in consumer- ship has raised municipal solid waste generation between 6500-7000 tons per day (Butt, 2019). In spite of solid waste collection service as non-exclusive, non-rivalled service, the local government can privatize some aspects of MSW services (Rosana D, 2013).Therefore, Lahore Waste Management (LWMC) has outsourced waste collection services in study area to private service provider (OzPak) since 2012.

The study area was selected because it has become a combination of residences belonging to high and low-income groups. In urban areas usually poor families are the ones who face poor solid waste management services due to insufficient waste collection resources (Zurbrügg, 2009) and customer satisfaction is a fundamental variable that narrates clients’ verdict regarding any service (Ograjenšek and Gal, 2011). To understand the factors that influence the satisfaction of citizens towards solid waste collection services the literature review firstly enabled researcher to select Infrastructure Service Behaviour Theory (ISB) Theory. The Infrastructure, Service and Behavioural Model ISB model assists in understanding the interactions between provision of infrastructure, service and citizens’ behaviour with respect to the service. The biased infrastructure provision & service quality among high income and poor income areas may apparently shift the solid waste collection issues from urban rich to urban poor but issues related to insufficient SWM system persists at city level.

Therefore, the objective of this study is to explain that how people from high and low income areas residing in same neighbourhood perceive the service quality and infrastructure provided by service provider and how these factors influence their level of satisfaction towards solid waste services being rendered.