Desalinated v recycled water – what the public think

Aug 10, 2006

The first Australian study to conduct a comparative analysis of knowledge, perceptions, acceptability and adoptability by age groups for recycled and desalinated water has found that people perceive desalinated water as environmentally unfriendly and recycled water as a public health hazard.

The study of 1,000 participants entitled “Desalinated versus recycled water – public perceptions, likelihood of adaptation and profiles of early adopters” was undertaken by Associate Professor Sara Dolnicar of the University of Wollongong’s School of Management and Marketing and Professor Andrea Schäfer of the School of Engineering and Electronics, University of Edinburgh.

Professor Dolnicar said it was abundantly clear from the results that the Australian population clearly discriminates between recycled and desalinated water pointing out for example that for ‘close-to-body’ uses desalinated water was preferred over recycled water.

“Interestingly, however, the results indicate that it is not possible to state that either desalinated water or recycled water is generally perceived as preferable by Australians,” Professor Dolnicar said.

She said their overall results have implications for water policy makers and managers about how to market the use of the different types of water. Professor Dolnicar said the study did show that people’s overall knowledge of the issue in question was low with responses given to the “knowledge questions” in the study indicating gaps in the general level of knowledge in the population.

She suggested that more emphasis on public education on the central issues may result in higher acceptance and participation in decision making processes.

And Professor Dolnicar highlighted the fact that people’s perceptions can be altered, as for example, opposition against recycled water has been known to fall significantly after people swim in this type of water.

The study was conducted using an Australian permission-based internet panel. Respondents were randomly selected from the panel which is maintained to contain respondents representative of the Australian population. They received an invitation to complete a 30-minute questionnaire online. One thousand respondents completed the survey.

The project was supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant and the International Science Linkages program established under the Federal Government’s Innovation Statement, Backing Australia’s Ability. It is funded by the Federal Department of Education Science and Training for the project OzAquarec:Integrated Concepts for Reuse of Upgraded Wastewater in Australia.

The study can be found at the following website: Water Study

For further information contact Associate Professor Sara Dolnicar on (02) 4221 3862 or mobile 0405 759031.

For more information, contact:

media@uow.edu.au
University of Wollongong
Ph: (02) 4221 5942; fax (02) 4221 3128