A Little Knowledge…: Household Water Quality Investment in the Annapolis Valley

Abstract

A household drinking water and sewage management survey in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley suggests that ability to interpret water quality information (proxied by education) strongly affects behavior. Higher education reduces the likelihood of households treating drinking water, but may increase the amount of water treated by households choosing to do so. Septic maintenance may impact water quality, but evidence for jointness in treatment and maintenance choice is absent. Further, increased education weakly reduces septic maintenance. Results suggest that more information about septic source threats to drinking water may induce households to choose more water treatment and less septic maintenance. Information campaigns alone are therefore unlikely to significantly reduce septic source pollution. Une enquête sur la gestion de l'eau potable et des eaux usées menée auprès des ménages de la vallée d'Annapolis en Nouvelle-Écosse autoriseà penser que la capacité d'interpréter l'information sur la qualité de l'eau (déterminée par la variable éducation ) influence fortement le comportement.Le fait de posséder uneéducation supérieure diminue la probabilité que des ménagesà traiter l'eau potable, mais peut augmenter la quantité d'eau traitée par ceux qui choisissent de le faire. L'entretien des fosses septiques peut avoir un impact sur la qualité de l'eau, mais il n'existe pas de preuve sur le choix combiné de traiter et d'entretenir. De plus, un niveau d'éducationélevé diminue faiblement le choix d'entretenir les fosses septiques. Les résultats laissent supposer que davantage d'information sur les menaces que représentent les eaux usées pour l'eau potable peut persuader les ménagesà choisir davantage de traiter l'eau età moins entretenir les fosses septiques. Il est donc peu probable que les campagnes d'information seules réussissentà faire diminuer considérablement la pollution provenant des fosses septiques.

Divergent Drinking Water Perceptions in the Annapolis Valley

“…However, no consistent relationship was found between educational attainment and cluster membership. Another analysis of these data ( Janmaat, 2006;2007) found that after removing the effect of other variables, education is negatively related to the likelihood of treating drinking water, and weakly negatively related to septic system maintenance. These results may indicate that more educated households are less sensitive to marketing efforts that raise water quality fears, and/or less disturbed by trace levels reported in water test results.…”

What are Households Willing to Pay for Better Tap Water Quality? A Cross-Country Valuation Study

“…None of these indicators were found significant. education, which can be considered a proxy for the ability to interpret water quality information (Janmaat, 2007), is normally expected to be positively related to willingness to pay, but previous research does not always find it significant.…”

Household bottled water consumption in Phoenix: a lifestyle choice

“…In the realm of water quality, people's proficiency in understanding scientific, water-related information (based on their numeracy, ability to read water quality assessments, and trust of water agencies and research) makes them more likely to assess water quality positively (Syme and Williams 1993, Johnson 2008, Dunlap et al 2000. Where water quality is perceived to be good, people with higher education are less likely to treat water (Janmaat 2007). We therefore hypothesized that individuals with higher education -based on their ability to comprehend information about the safety of Phoenix's water -would be less likely to consume bottled water regularly than people with less education.…”