Barriers and opportunities for behavior change in managing high water demand in water scarce Indigenous communities: an Australian perspective

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Aldirawi, Safaa
Souter, Regina
Beal, Cara D
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2019
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Abstract

Managing water demand by reducing water consumption and improving water use efficiency has become essential for ensuring water security. This research aimed to identify the primary determinants of household water consumption in an Australian Indigenous community to develop evidence-based water demand management policies and strategies that might be implemented by the water service provider. A behavior change framework was applied to investigate the opportunity, ability, and motivational determinants affecting household water consumption and conservation in an Australian Indigenous community. The lack of water conservation knowledge and skills of high water users could be barriers to saving water. Low water users have positive attitudes towards water conservation and a higher level of awareness about their own water use. While there is a lack of a belief that water shortages will occur, low water users do have concerns of vulnerability to droughts, and that could be a driver for their sense of obligation to engage in water conservation practices. The research recommended communication messages and tools to address identified barriers to enabling positive changes to water use behaviors, which have wider applications in remote Australian Indigenous communities.

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Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development

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© IWA Publishing 2019. This is the author-manuscript version of this paper. The definitive peer-reviewed and edited version of this article is published in Water Intelligence Online 2019, https://doi.org/10.2166/washdev.2019.091and is available at www.iwapublishing.com

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This publication has been entered into Griffith Research Online as an Advanced Online Version

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Environmental engineering

Urban and regional planning

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander environmental knowledges and management

Environmental management

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Aldirawi, S; Souter, R; Beal, CD, Barriers and opportunities for behavior change in managing high water demand in water scarce Indigenous communities: an Australian perspective, Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development

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