Water consumption pattern of urban households in Johor Bahru

Abstract

Knowledge about water consumption is necessary for water resource planning and development. In the past, many countries in the world including Malaysia adopted the supply management approach for the management of water resources. The conventional supply approach has been proven to be insufficient to cope with increasing water demand to meet changing standards in water utilization. As a new approach in water planning and management, not many studies have been undertaken on analyzing water consumption of Malaysian water consumers. Hence, this research is aimed towards understanding the water usage, awareness, attitudes and perception of water consumers in a major urban area of Johor Bahru District, Malaysia. The study was conducted with four hundred (N=400) sampled respondents comprising of residents of planned housing areas, traditional village, new village and squatter settlements. A questionnaire administered randomly to the selected respondents based on housing type, settlement type and some socio-economic criteria. The data analysis techniques applied are descriptive analysis and inferential analysis using Chi-Square Test. The result had identified that the average water consumption of Johor Bahru is 566 litre per capita per day. Housing type, type of settlement, ethnicity, age, numbers of household, level of education and income have significant effect on water consumption among households. The attitude towards water conservation is not encouraging as only about half of the opinion that conserving water is necessary. The finding indicates that in order to change human behavioral towards water conservation, economic alternative can foster attitude or behavioral shifts. For instance, setting and enforcing higher prices can encourage lower consumption.