Societal responses to water conservation policy instruments: a literature review and some comments o

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Societal responses to water conservation policy
instruments a literature review and some
comments on emerging theory. Paul Jeffrey
Mary Gearey School of Water Sciences, Cranfield
University, UK Prepared for the EPSRC funded
network on Water Conservation Recycling
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Demand management techniques

• Point-of-Use Conservation
• Economic and Financial Tools
• Regulatory Tools
• Operations and Maintenance Tools
• Communication and Education Tools
• Water Recycling

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Economic and Financial Tools

• Examples
• Financial incentives to install water use
  efficient devices e.g. low interest or
  forgivable loans, tax credits, rebates, buy-backs
  of inefficient devices.
• Fines for non-compliance of regulatory
  requirements (e.g. 1500 fine for watering your
  garden Israel, Summer 2001).
• Pricing structures e.g, increasing block rates,
  seasonal rates.
• Start-up and venture capital financing.
• Surcharges linking sewer costs with water use.
• Full cost pricing
• Water licence rate adjustments.
• Considerations
• Social issues such as equitable distribution and
  ability to pay require careful deliberation.
• Price is assumed to change consumer behaviour,
  when in reality a variety of factors influence
  behaviour.
• Availability of an inexpensive source of water is
  often linked to economic development such as
  large industries and agriculture.
• Some water uses, particularly indoor residential
  use, are relatively price-inelastic.
• Rising water prices can adversely influence
  public perception of water companies

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Regulatory Tools

• Examples
• Building and plumbing code restrictions. e.g.
  toilets, faucets, showerheads, water and sewer
  lines, downspouts, water processing and cooling
  systems
• Landscape requirements (perhaps through planning
  processes) e.g. pervious surfaces, xeriscapes
  (water-efficient landscape design that
  incorporates low-water-use plants), slopes, soil
  cover.
• Outdoor water use restrictions . e.g. lawn and
  garden, washing, swimming pools.
• Requirements or enabling legislation to consider
  water use efficiency in planning.
• Bylaws for new construction e.g. requiring
  "shunt pipes" to facilitate addition of meters in
  future, low-flow fixtures, standards for
  installation and construction of water mains,
  meters.
• Considerations
• Public and political acceptability is largely
  dependent on perceived need.
• Mandatory measures and voluntary / enabling
  measures will depend on several factors
  including financing, availability of water
  saving devices and the relative effectiveness of
  water supply management objectives.

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Communication and Education Tools

• Examples
• Competitions, awards and recognition programs.
• Demonstration sites and information centres.
• One-on-one meetings with major water users.
• Social marketing campaigns such as public
  broadcasting announcements, brochures and
  handouts, public displays, slogans, bill inserts,
  internet sites, door-to-door campaigns, newspaper
  articles and radio/television programs
• Published materials such as "how to" manuals,
  case studies, technical reports, resource
  libraries
• School programs including activity books, games,
  videos and CDs, poster contests, in-class visits,
  "teach the teacher" guides, curriculum guides
• Special project committees, seminars and
  workshops with specific water users.

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Communication and Education Tools

• Considerations
• Communication and education is based on an
  assumption that action is influenced by awareness
  and understanding.
• Some tools are aimed very broadly or indirectly
  at water consumers, resulting in low or
  immeasurable results.
• Communication and education requires a good
  understanding of how people learn and how they
  are motivated.
• The focus is most commonly aimed at individual
  behaviour change, which requires a high critical
  mass and takes time before results are
  noticeable.
• Water conservation messages are difficult to
  market.
• Messages should be phased to
• create awareness and interest,
• persuade and motivate,
• educate and provide skills or other tools to
  enable people to conserve,
• create actions, and
• maintain behavioural changes.

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Typical household savings from conservation
measures
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Income and water demand
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Income and water demand
Per capita water consumption is positively
correlated with average monthly income. Data are
for 133 Israeli cities and towns of over 5,000
population. Source - Lipchin et. al.
Water consumption per capita is negatively
correlated with population growth rate. Data are
for 133 Israeli cities and towns of over 5,000
population. Source - Lipchin et. al.
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Communication and Education Tools

• Examples
• Competitions, awards and recognition programs.
• Demonstration sites and information centres.
• One-on-one meetings with major water users.
• Social marketing campaigns such as public
  broadcasting announcements, brochures and
  handouts, public displays, slogans, bill inserts,
  internet sites, door-to-door campaigns, newspaper
  articles and radio/television programs
• Published materials such as "how to" manuals,
  case studies, technical reports, resource
  libraries
• School programs including activity books, games,
  videos and CDs, poster contests, in-class visits,
  "teach the teacher" guides, curriculum guides
• Special project committees, seminars and
  workshops with specific water users.

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Communication and Education Tools

• Considerations
• Communication and education is based on an
  assumption that action is influenced by awareness
  and understanding.
• Some tools are aimed very broadly or indirectly
  at water consumers, resulting in low or
  immeasurable results.
• Communication and education requires a good
  understanding of how people learn and how they
  are motivated.
• The focus is most commonly aimed at individual
  behaviour change, which requires a high critical
  mass and takes time before results are
  noticeable.
• Water conservation messages are difficult to
  market.
• Messages should be phased to
• create awareness and interest,
• persuade and motivate,
• educate and provide skills or other tools to
  enable people to conserve,
• create actions, and
• maintain behavioural changes.

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Community awareness campaign - 1
Deputy Drip (Southern Nevada Water Authority
mascot)
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Community awareness campaign - 2
Water Use it wisely Phoenix, Arizona
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Meteringdoes it reduce demand ??
Source OECD report by Working Party on Economic
and Environmental Policy Integration Household
water pricing in OECD countries
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Case study Seattles peaky users

• In Seattle, summer season peaking can effectively
  double yearly water demands. Irrigation of
  residential landscapes, especially lawns, is the
  cause of the high peak.
• Weather patterns each year provide significant
  variation in peak demand, with cool wet summers
  having much lower peaks than hot dry summers
• Unlike electricity, water can be stored, and
  peak demands can be met by enlarging the capacity
  of pumps, pipes, tanks, and reservoirs..but this
  is expensive
• Since pumps, pipes, and related infrastructure
  are usually sized to meet peak, rather than
  average demands, conservation measures that
  target peak demand reduction offer more value
  than measures that target base (average)
  demands.

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Case study Seattles peaky users
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Case study Seattles peaky users
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Options Seattle Public Utilities uses for
reducing peak demand include

• Requiring customers who peak heavily off the
  regional system to have their own storage. This
  transfers the cost of meeting peak demand back to
  the customer.
• Use of artificial recharge wells and high rate
  pumping during peak season. Wells are injected
  with drinking water from other sources during off
  peaks, and pumped at rates much higher than
  normal during peak periods.
• Utility subsidizing of non-potable secondary
  supplies. In some cases, peak users such as golf
  courses, industrial cooling water, etc. can be
  encouraged to either use reclaimed water or use
  non-potable ponds, wells, or other sources during
  peak demand periods.
• Adoption of interruptible rates can be possible
  for some customers. Some customers may wish to
  risk interruption for peak day or peak week in
  exchange for lower rates year-round.
• Peak day scheduling of large peak users.
  Utilities can sometimes request selected
  customers to hold back consumption if the utility
  anticipates a high peak day or peak week use.

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Options Seattle Public Utilities uses for
reducing peak demand include

• Selected water use restrictions. Bans on
  irrigation based on time of day, day of week,
  etc. are often done to avoid water shortages,
  but also can be effective in reducing peak
  demands.
• Marginal cost pricing rate structures for all
  customer classes
• Demand metering charges to send additional price
  signals to peaky customers
• Reduction in non-revenue water by timing
  flushing, reservoir cleaning, and overflows and,
  
• A highly visible, award winning, public
  information conservation campaign that focuses
  on lawn watering efficiency, using TV, radio, and
  print media, as well as traditional bill inserts.

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Case study Seattles peaky users
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Water reuse public perceptions
Percentage of respondents opposed to 27 uses of
reclaimed water in the general option
surveys.(taken from WPCF, 1989)
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More recently, in a study of over 300 households
in England Wales by Jeffrey (2002) has shown
that

• Use of a water recycling system where the source
  and application are located within their own
  household is acceptable to the vast majority of
  the population as long as they have trust in the
  organisation which sets standards for water
  reuse. Using recycled water from second party or
  public sources is less acceptable, although half
  the population show no concern, irrespective of
  the water source.
• Water recycling is generally more acceptable in
  non-urban areas than in urban areas. This
  disparity is most pronounced for systems where
  the source and use are not within the
  respondents own residence.
• Willingness to use recycled water, particularly
  from communal sources, is higher amongst metered
  households than amongst non-metered households,
  and higher amongst those households which take
  water conservation measures than amongst those
  who do not.

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Barriers to behavioural change

• Cheap water lack of metering
• Water low on day-to-day agenda unless there is a
  crisis
• Influence of media
• Ability of communities to adopt or buy into a
  diagnosis
• Behavioural inertia
• Profile of response / savings difficult to
  predict and control
• Difficulty of access to examples of good
  behaviour.
• Religion - mostly proscriptions on reused waste
  water.
• Lifestyle lock-in - inability to modify behaviour