Abstract
Highlighting the practice of water conservation (PWC) is a safe way to accomplish water savings. Nevertheless, parameters affecting behavior change linked to water use keep uncertain. In this study, 467 residents (female: 272; male: 195) from three villages situated in the commune of Pelengana in Segou, Mali were investigated in order to analyze the effects of awareness, perceptions and individual water-use patterns control on PWC, and also the influence of gender on inhabitants' PWC. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by post-hoc LSD tests were used in analyzing different data. Participants were very familiar with PWC, but stated low involvement in PWC, especially among men consumers. Although women adopted more PWC than men, the amount of water consumed by these women was more twice greater that of men. Women consumers engaged in PWC principally to reduce water costs, while men consumers applied PWC principally for water scarcity reduction. Daily habits changes and demands of extra time and effort were the principal obstacles for PWC, notably for men consumers. In all, there is a pressing need to enhance information clarity and communication among gender, consumers, and decision-makers to strengthen social assistance for water conservation. Keywords: Water conservation, behavior, gender, awareness, water-use patterns, Mali's rural area DOI: 10.7176/JRDM/63-05 Publication date: March 31 st 2020
Highlights
Water destined for human consumption, and domestic uses are essential to maintaining a public health and it contributes to the quality of life of households through the provision of basic needs of water and sanitation
Females have adopted a lot of practices of water conservation (PWC) than males; this conclusion is consistent with other previous studies, which have shown that women practiced more water-saving behavior compared to men (Hablemitoglu et al, 2017)
The findings found in Nancarrow and Syme’s (1989) study showed that public policy decisions can affect the public’s water conservation behavior
Summary
Water destined for human consumption, and domestic uses are essential to maintaining a public health and it contributes to the quality of life of households through the provision of basic needs of water and sanitation. Some noteworthy statistics from the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program 2017 (JMP) for Water and Sanitation reveal that in such areas, roughly 748 million people do not have access to sufficient safe drinking water. Governments, the World Health Organization (WHO) and several other development partners have tried to extend water distribution systems in order to ensure potable water supply in low-income countries. Thanks to their attempts, more than 2.6 billion human beings were able to access safe drinking water between 1995 and 2015. In Mali, hundreds million dollars has been invested in water distribution systems from 2005 to 2013, and roughly 1,700 modern water points have been built for 62% of the overall rural inhabitants by the end of 2013 (UN-WATER/WWAP 2016)
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