Public awareness of and attitudes towards water use and its conservation

Understanding how the public views water use and its conservation is crucial to the effective management of water resources. More often than not such research is limited by geographical location. Therefore, with behaviour change playing an ever greater role in the management of water resources, there is a growing need to better understand how the public views water use and it conservation in particular locations. This is crucial to the development of more informed and robust policy decisions. As a result, this paper presents the findings of a small-scale research project that sought to expand the geographical scope upon which our understandings of water use and its conservation are based i.e. the county of Buckinghamshire in the United Kingdom. Questionnaires were administered to 60 members of the general public, with the issues of awareness and attitudes towards water; current consumption behaviours; and potential barriers to increasing domestic water efficiency being explored. The results of the study are shown to support previous research findings in the area of public awareness of water use and its conservation, most notably in relation to being unaware of consumption levels and the impact gender can have on engagement. It is concluded that the findings of the study support further the need for not only ongoing research but awareness campaigns targeted at changing social norms toward the need for water efficiency, with these appearing to be associated with low awareness of environmental issues more generally.