Understanding public perception, knowledge and behaviour for water quality management of the river Yamuna in India

Abstract

The paper aims to understand how the public perceives river water quality and related risks and behaviour. Using the stratified semi-purposive sampling process, the study explores the perception of people residing along the river Yamuna in India. The method applied involved a structured questionnaire survey of 2706 respondents and four focused group discussions with people residing within two kilometres of the river bank. Non-parametric tests such as Kruskal Wallis, Mann Whitney U-test and One-Sample Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test were used to analyse the data. The findings suggest that the majority of the respondents formulate their perceptions using non-scientific methods like sensorial and heuristics. Perception on sources of pollution is shaped by personal experiences and people do not perceive diffused sources of pollution that affect river water quality. Respondents attributed the pollution in the river to anthropogenic activities and their risk perception was found to be linked to their direct dependence on the river for their daily needs. The paper suggests behavioural change strategies to focus on social, governance, and technological drivers.

Exploring stakeholders’ perceptions of the quality and governance of water resources in the Wenchi municipality

“…This does not allow for exploring data across institutional and sociodemographic dimensions. Evidence suggests that people's knowledge of the problem, personal experience (e.g., Tarannum et al, 2018), institutional roles or social position (e.g., Haeffner et al, 2018), and socio-demographic characteristics (e.g., Fobil et al, 2010;Ndunda and Mungatana, 2013; may influence their evaluation of the state of an environmental resource (e.g., rivers), as well as their motivations to support water protection interventions (e.g., Francis et al, 2015). Therefore, the potential role of social position, sociodemographics and other factors on people's perceptions of environmental quality needs further research.…”

“…For instance, some studies investigate risk perceptions of low quality water in the farm environment in Ethiopia (e.g., Woldetsadik et al, 2018), Kenya (e.g., Ndunda and Mungatana, 2013), Ghana (e.g., Amponsah et al, 2016) and Tanzania (e.g., Mayilla et al, 2017). On the other hand, only a few studies explore perceptions regarding the quality of fresh/surface water resources such as rivers and streams; views on what could be done to improve the quality of water resources and the role of different actors (Francis et al, 2015;Tarannum et al, 2018).…”

Stakeholders' willingness and motivations to support sustainable water resources management: Insights from a Ghanaian study

“…Like any qualitative research, the limited number of interview participants does not allow for exploring data across various dimensions (e.g., socio-demographics). Past studies report that stakeholders' knowledge of an environmental problem, personal experience (e.g., Tarannum, Kansal, & Sharma, 2018), social position and regulatory roles (e.g., Haeffner, Jackson-Smith, & Flint, 2018), and socio-demographic characteristics (Fobil, May, & Kraemer, 2010;Haeffner et al, 2018;Withanachchi et al, 2018) may affect their evaluation of an environmental resource and their motivations to support interventions. Therefore, future studies could benefit from a stratified sampling strategy where participants are recruited based on various sociodemographic characteristics such as type of economic activity (e.g., farmers and industrialists) and income classes.…”

Farmers’ Perception of Water Quality and Risks in the Mashavera River Basin, Georgia: Analyzing the Vulnerability of the Social-Ecological System through Community Perceptions

“…There are several studies that analyse people's perception of water quality in the context of, for example, drinking water [11,13,[37][38][39][40], lifestyle disruption and recreational activities [28,41], surface water sources in different water usage situations [4,[42][43][44], and agricultural water usage [26,[45][46][47]. Water-related risk perception and the perception of water quality are integrally connected [11,13].…”

“…An analysis of the public risk perception and the consideration of their concerns over water quality have been identified as crucial factors for an operative water quality governance system [36,37,44]. Within this survey, we also asked about the existing mechanisms for farmers to participate in water quality governance.…”