How Perceptions of Trust, Risk, Tap Water Quality, and Salience Characterize Drinking Water Choices

Abstract

Provision of safe drinking water by water utilities is challenged by disturbances to water quality that have become increasingly frequent due to global changes and anthropogenic impacts. Many water utilities are turning to adaptable and flexible strategies to allow for resilient management of drinking water supplies. The success of resilience-based management depends on, and is enabled by, positive relationships with the public. To understand how relationships between managers and communities spill over to in-home drinking water behavior, we examined the role of trust, risk perceptions, salience of drinking water, and water quality evaluations in the choice of in-home drinking water sources for a population in Roanoke Virginia. Using survey data, our study characterized patterns of in-home drinking water behavior and explored related perceptions to determine if residents’ perceptions of their water and the municipal water utility could be intuited from this behavior. We characterized drinking water behavior using a hierarchical cluster analysis and highlighted the importance of studying a range of drinking water patterns. Through analyses of variance, we found that people who drink more tap water have higher trust in their water managers, evaluate water quality more favorably, have lower risk perceptions, and pay less attention to changes in their tap water. Utility managers may gauge information about aspects of their relationships with communities by examining drinking water behavior, which can be used to inform their future interactions with the public, with the goal of increasing resilience and adaptability to external water supply threats.

From “trust” to “trustworthiness”: Retheorizing dynamics of trust, distrust, and water security in North America

“…Perhaps the most long-established and consistent finding in the literature is that trust in tap water is influenced by water’s sensory qualities, collectively known as “organoleptic characteristics” that include smell, taste, color, and turbidity. Trust in tap water is shaped by an individual’s organoleptic sensitivity, risk perception, and attitudes toward chemicals (de França Doria, 2010; de França Doria et al, 2005; Grupper et al, 2021).…”

“…Trust in water systems is also sometimes measured directly. For instance, Grupper et al (2021) ask about the extent to which they “trusted [their] local water utility to provide drinking water to [their] home that is safe to drink.” Such approaches generally are useful to show whether or not trust or distrust is in evidence, but generally do not go further to elicit narratives or explanations as to why people and communities might trust or distrust in the water, or the institutions that provide water and so forth. In contrast, qualitative methods, using ethnography, interviews, and focus groups, can be used to inductively explore narratives that explain why it is, in people‘s own words, that people distrust the water, or other features of the system (e.g.…”

Factores en la decisión de beber agua directamente de la red pública en tres Zonas Metropolitanas de México

“…Un aspecto al que se le ha puesto particular atención es la percepción del riesgo por la calidad del agua suministrada en la vivienda. Por ejemplo, un trabajo reciente concluye que la población que bebe agua de la llave tiene mayor confianza en sus proveedores de servicios de agua, evalúa la calidad del agua de manera favorable y percibe menor riesgo por la ingestión de agua de la llave (Grupper et al, 2021). Un factor relevante en la percepción de riesgo es la contaminación de las fuentes de agua (McSpirit & Reid, 2011).…”

A PLS-SEM Analysis to Check Public Willingness to Use Water from Filtration Plants Installed by Public Own Organizations; a Study of Psychological Behavior Toward Sustainable Development

“…The purpose of this study is to determine the factors that influence the public's willingness to use water from public own organizations in Islamabad Pakistan. Some other researchers [30][31][32][33] have developed a conceptual framework for this research that takes into account the public's willingness to drink water that has been filtered at a plant that has already been erected. Under this research number of parameters were selected to check people's willingness to use water from filtration plants ie, Water Quality Knowledge= WQK; Social Perspective=SP; Health Consciousness=HC; Hygiene Water=HW; Cost Savings=CS; Water Color=WC; Willingness to use Filter Water from Filtration Plants=WUFWFP.…”