Water conservation, beliefs and fairness preferences in collective burden sharing

Abstract

As the likeliness of severe droughts grows, cities across South Africa will be forced into implementing restrictions on their residents to curb their consumption. To effectively apply these austerity measures an understanding of the links between household water consumption and people’s beliefs is key. Further, knowing how information affects household policy and fairness views will enable effectual targeting and minimise wasteful spending of public funds. Within this, investigating the differences between different socio-economic conditions, particularly across income groups, allows for more effectual targeting of interventions. Through the investigation into respondents’ beliefs on household water consumption a Water Research Commission (WRC)-funded study found that most respondents showed a large misperception about the amount of water consumed by rich and poor households during the drought in Cape Town. From the survey data, there was a lot of heterogeneity in beliefs about the likelihood of a future drought, with poor respondents, and those with primary or secondary education having lower odds of believing that a future drought was likely.

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