Abstract
Consumer attitude needs to be changed to ensure the adequacy of water supply in Malaysia due to serious issues likes rising water demands, pollution, global population growth and climate change. An existing study on domestic water consumption behaviour among Malaysians are not extensively discussed in depth, whereas the constructs of consumer behaviour should be seriously addressed in the effort to create awareness on water conservation. The paper intends to identify the level of attitude of domestic water consumers according to their cognitive, conative and affective constructs. The data was collected from five territorial divisions located in Gombak, Selangor, Malaysia through survey by using structured questionnaires to 400 domestic water users from December 2016 to February 2017. All the data were analyzed using SPSS version 21 to produce descriptive results (frequency, percentage, overall mean and standard deviation score). The findings show that the measurement level of domestic water consumers' attitudes, which were ‘cognitive’, ‘conative’ and ‘affective’, varied according to the determination of mean scores. Generally, the study output shows cognitive constructs are at a high level (4.71) while the conative constructs (3.27) and affective (3.15) are in moderate level. The existence of consumers’ attitudes at higher levels indicate that respondents are more likely to assess the use of water carefully, to reduce the wastage of water and contribute to the reduction of monthly water bill costs among households.
Highlights
Malaysia has the highest water consumption rate in Southeast Asia, if compared to the United Nations guidelines which suggest that the total water requirement for each person is 165 litres per day [1]
There were 10 items representing the dimensions of consumer attitudes divided by three main constructs namely cognitive, conative and affective
The scale issued by [12] clearly stated that the respondents' cognitive attitudes in the Gombak, Selangor were at high level compared to other constructs
Summary
Malaysia has the highest water consumption rate in Southeast Asia, if compared to the United Nations guidelines which suggest that the total water requirement for each person is 165 litres per day [1]. In the 1970s, Malaysians only used less than 200 litres of water a day (litres per day). It is estimated that consumers use about 500 LPDs [2]. Water users in Malaysia can be divided into two categories, domestic and non-domestic water users. This research focuses only on the behaviour of domestic water users in daily practices among the residents of Gombak District, Selangor
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