Media Release
December 5, 2006
Water doesn’t come from the tap
The key to decreasing water use is to increase people’s
“psychological connectedness” to the scarce resource, says
Associate Professor Jacques Metzer, from UniSA’s
School of Psychology.
“Psychological connectedness is defined as a belief in, and a feeling of
being an important part of something ─ it can be an organisation, a
community, or a system,” Prof Metzer says.
“Acting upon this belief and feeling is the core of knowing that your
personal actions can make a difference.
“The urban lifestyle of many Australians means they feel little or no
connection to the environment and don’t see the need to conserve water.
“Many people believe, or act as if they believe, that water simply comes
out of a tap in the home available at any time, with little regard or
understanding of its origin.”
Prof Metzer says this can be changed by making water conservation an
issue that is closer to home, particularly for city-dwellers who, unlike
many country people, don’t have this “psychological connectedness” with
their environment.
“For example, a person may be more willing to give up an extra five
minutes under the shower, if they know a small vegetable patch or fruit
tree in the backyard can be saved. There will be a greater awareness of
the function of water in sustaining plant life and more taking of
pleasure in the results of water conservation.”
By removing the current system of fines and punishments for excessive
water use and replacing it with an incentive system, Prof Metzer is
confident the community can become more quickly engaged with water
saving.
“There are many methods open to Government action on this, but few are
employed in this State. Appealing only to people’s civic duty is not
effective,” he says.
Some of his ideas include rewarding people who meet certain targeted
reductions, giving more frequent feedback about household usage, and
encouraging households to catch, store and recycle water.
Prof Metzer says a campaign that made these connections for householders
would be very powerful in changing people’s habits.
“If you understand that taking a much shorter shower each day could save
your favourite roses over summer, or that doing two loads less of
washing per week might mean you can grow your own tomatoes – it all
starts to make more sense and people become more connected to the
conservation issues,” he said.
Prof Metzer says if the South Australian Government wants tangible
solutions to the water crisis, ideas that “decrease the psychological
distance” between water and its users will form a great part of the
solution.
“Encouraging people to take this kind of action which is linked with
appropriate feedback is the way to go.
“This will make consequences more immediate to the individual, and
therefore behaviour will become more closely aligned to the desired
behaviour, which is the conservation of water.”
Contact for interview
-
Associate Professor Jacques Metzer office (08) 8302 2275 email jack.metzer@unisa.edu.au
Media contact
- Rebecca Gill office (08) 8302 0096 mobile 0404 85 7977 email rebecca.gill@unisa.edu.au