Encouraging Water Conservation among Tenants in Low-Income Housing

I have two suggestions on water conservation:
1. Shower baths are very wasteful both of water and heating. After wetting your body turn off the taps while shampooing your hair and body. Then turn on the shower to rinse off the soap. that saves several gallons of warm water.

2. In Australia a geiser (sp?) is used to heat water while you are using it. there is no hot water tank. A gas flame warms the water while it is running. Perhaps there is alternatively an electric method.

3. In Thailand there are lovely porcelain squat toilets with no flush system. You run water into a mug from a tap beside you. That is enough for your own hygiene and to flush the s-shaped trap of the toilet. There is no odor or unpleasantness, as in some countries.

Myrtle Macdonald

Myrtle Macdonald
Consultant
retired
Canada

Hi Myrtle, thanks for your suggestions about measures that save water. However, I'm actually interested in social marketing/educational campaigns or initiatives that led to behavioral change among tenants.

For instance, turning off the tap when washing dishes or taking shorter showers.

Thanks so much for your comment,
Amy

Amy Stitely
United States

Hi Amy,

We are undertaking a pilot project in partnership with a water company and social housing providers in Wales (description below behaviour change, retrofit and behaviour change, and retrofit only sub-groups).

Heating hot water in the home, excluding central heating, accounts for around 5% of UK annual carbon emissions. We are working with the Energy Saving Trust, Dwr Cymru Welsh Water and two housing associations on a pilot study to improve water and energy efficiency. The pilot encourages behaviour change utilising individualised approaches and water efficient fittings, such as aerated taps and shower heads, installed in social housing in Wales. From initial modelling, we estimate that the first phase of the pilot, working with 300 households, will save 8.5 million litres of water, 70 tonnes of CO2 and a combined £20,000 a year in energy and water bills. Initial results will be available in August 2011.

Other projects with social housing in England and research reports include:

*Environment Agency (2009) The social science of encouraging water efficiency
http://publications.environment-agency.gov.uk/pdf/SCHO1209BRLE-e-e.pdf

*Tap into Savings (includes EcoTeams)
http://www.waterwise.org.uk/reducing_water_wastage_in_the_uk/research/tap_into_savings.html

*Preston Water Efficiency Initiative
http://www.waterwise.org.uk/images/site/Research/preston%20water%20efficiency%20initiative%20-%20final%20report%20-%20march%202009%20-%20waterwise%20with%20partners.pdf

*EST Water Energy Calculator (useful flash based tool to understand where savings can be made) http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/watercalculator/flashcalculator

I'm keen to find links between our work on water and energy efficiency and partners in the USA, EU, Australia and it would be great to hear more about any projects you take forward.

Kind regards,

Aaron


Aaron Burton
Wales

Aaron. I appreciate your taking the time to send these links. I'm actually just at the beginning of the research phase for applying a CBSM approach in a water and energy conservation initiative.

This tenant-landlord dynamic is interesting, because there is no direct financial incentive for tenants to modify behavior.

As things move forward, I will keep the forum updated. Thanks again.

Amy

Amy Stitely
United States

Aaron, I also look forward to seeing the results of your pilot.

Thanks again,
Amy

Amy Stitely
United States

Social marketing would bring limited results because of dealing with symptoms not causes and putting the largest burden on the poor. It is even paternalistic. It discriminates against the poor. Why should people in your social housing complex be asked to save water when people in upper class homes are not? Let the poor have enough water and make it impossible for the rich from have more than they need. To save water please get to basics. Build plumbing equipment, housing and irrigation that naturally use water efficiently. Housing codes should require plumbing innovations that cut down on waste.

The rich and the poor should be integrated into equivalent housing. Social housing may seem a step forward but it is really condescending. Subsidize several apartments anonymously in every middle class apartment building to house the poor, to allow them to pass in dignity.
Besides some people, whether educated or not, just cannot save water when asked, or even encouraged to do.

Many cannot do what we politely ask them to do. For example, my brother who lives with me is very cooperative and kind, yet he refuses to use less water for his showers. We have a 30 gallon hot water tank. He uses up nearly all the hot water for one shower each morning. It is not practical to give him our electricity bill. It does not prove which appliance consumed much. It is impossible to give him our water bill because our strata housing pays for water and sewer. What would I do if there were several people depending on that one tank? There is no other person to shout to him "Hey, who used up all the hot water?"

Children may suffer the most. Attitudes they learn in school may not be practiced or honored by their elders at home.

No, you are on the wrong track. Switch to designing plumbing equipment and apartments where little water and electricity are needed.

America wastes water in many ways. For example, city hall tells people to water lawns for an hour twice a week, but don't prosecute those who do more watering. They ought to ban lawns and ask people to grow vegetables and fruit. In China and South East Asia I saw every square foot is used to grow green vegetables. Every valley is cleared of rubble and the mountains are terraced. The water from rain and springs is all directed to flow evenly through the small fields.

Gardens and orchards also can be watered by water draining from baths and kichens. In Lesotho I saw how kitchen water ran through a sand filter into the fields below. Each field was surrounded with Lucern grass (alfalfa) which has long roots with nodules that convert nitrogen out of the air to fertilize the soil, and which kept the water from rushing down in torrents to carry away top soil. Soil erosion can be prevented. Starvation can be prevented.

In India our soapy bath water ran around papaya trees, resulting in abundant crops.

If you can't use this wise experience, please pass it on to industries, contractors, and politicians who are humble enough to learn from the experiences of other cultures. It is time to learn from the wisdom of the simple.

Sincerely,
Myrtle Macdonald [email protected] 604-795-6390



Myrtle Macdonald
Consultant
retired
Canada

Amy,

I wish I had more to add to your request for effective social marketing, but I would be interested to hear what you try. I recognize the added psychological aspect that comes from not having direct control over your water bill. We live in a college town and I would like to figure out a way to target the college students living in apartments with shared meters. If the student believes their neighbor to be using more water, then why should they conserve? The perception being he/she is sacrificing longer showers, yet suffering a higher water cost due to someone else's behavior. There is no power. There isnt fairness. The incentive to use water wisely is diminished.

My initial thought of how to reach the tenants is through the landlords. Determine what the motivators are for them. If there is a specific amount they charge for rent, rent wont adjust with a higher or lower water bill. This could potentially mean more profit from the rent? This profit could be reinvested for new low-flow/high efficiency fixtures. The landlords may be motivated to put a water conservation sticker/message on each mirror of the bathrooms. The simple conservation message can possibly change the behavior of some of the tenants. If you have complexes that are sub-metered by building, there could be a competition between the buildings to see which group used the least amount of water and gets a one- time reduction in the monthly rent.

Those are a few quick ideas, but nothing I have ever attempted.


Laurel Loftin
Athens-Clarke County Water Conservation Office
United States
www.thinkatthesink.com

In the UK most houses do not have water meters however we still aim not to waste water, be we poor or rich, and this is largely brought about by highlighting the environmental impacts of wasting water and the issues around drought and reservoir levels. this would surely be just as valid in the USA? As to the comments above no one is saying the poor should go without just that we should not waste water, the poor can care about nature as much as the rich.

Jo Horsley
Environment Wales Development Officer
Wales