Sustainable water use and the nexus of behavioural intentions: the case of four South African communities

Abstract

South Africa continues to ramp up public campaigns to rein in escalating water demand against the backdrop of dwindling and erratic supply. While the water conservation campaign appears to resonate with commercial and urban water users, it does not seem to have gained traction with rural and periurban residents. Using the sequential mixed methods, this paper explores the water conservation attitudes, behaviour and intentions of rural and periurban respondents in four South African communities. Results reveal respondents consider water conservation important and are favourably disposed to conserving water. Attitude, subjective norm and behavioural control emerged as significant factors influencing respondents’ water conservation intentions. The study concludes that rural and periurban residents are yet to develop a social ethic of water conservation essential in creating sustainability of resource use.

Cross-country evidence for social dimensions of urban water consumption during droughts

“…On the other hand, an assessment of the effect of proenvironmental identity in Italy provided support to the TPB (Carfora et al, 2017). Similar results were found for South Africa in the sense that positive attitudes towards water saving were associated to robust intentions to engage in expected actions (Onyenankeya et al, 2018). In the context of water conservation in Iran, Yazdanpanah et al, (2014) suggest that looming water crises, risk perception and self-rewarding sentiments raise the intention to save the water resource.…”

“…Positive attitudes and willingness to save water favor individual intentions to engage in water saving actions (Onyenankeya et al, 2018). Cape Town -South Africa 14 Specifically, the program provided water users with information regarding their outdoor water use (compared to an efficient standard) and their neighbors'.…”

Negotiating water conservation communication through indigenous media

“…A study by Onyenankeya et al (2017) that investigated the water conservation attitudes of rural and peri-urban residents in South Africa found that "rural and peri-urban residents are yet to develop a social ethic of water conservation essential in creating sustainability of resource use". This suggest that existing water conservation communication strategies are yet to "resonate with this very influential population" (Onyenankeya et al 2015: 23).…”

The mediating role of farmers' time perspective in water resources exploitation behaviour in the eastern area of Lake Urmia, Iran: An environmental psychological analysis

“…This is less observed around Lake Urmia, where the majority of farmers are local. This would result in their stronger place attachment. One of the effective factors in strengthening WREB is to promote environmental attitudes (Onyenankeya et al , 2018; Valizadeh et al , 2018) and to increase farmers' level of motivation (Mohammadi‐Mehr et al , 2018) and environmental knowledge (Gulati and Chand Rai, 2015) by providing an appropriate and effective educational services tailored to farmers' needs. The findings confirmed this issue as well.…”