A Research Note on: People and Prices: Rural Water Systems in Oklahoma

Abstract

Conserving natural resources is a topic of concern for housing researchers. Although conservation of energy resources has been well documented, less attention has been given to water conservation strategies. Previous research concentrates on water conservation in metropolitan areas with little emphasis on rural households. The research presented in this paper is the result of a mail survey to rural households in Oklahoma. This paper examines the implications of alternative pricing strategies for water conservation measures.Rural water system users are unique because some have alternative sources of water. Demand estimates using regression analysis show that there are differences in the seasonal demand for water. Water systems using pricing strategies that take account the different seasonal demands for rural water may be faced with the problem of water users utilizing alternative sources of water, such as wells. Traditional water conservation measures, such as increasing the price of water, become obsolete for those households with alternative sources of water. Those alternative sources allow users to circumvent conservation measures.