Improving community water conservation behaviour in Chachoengsao, Thailand
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publisher
Edith Cowan University
Faculty
Faculty of Computing, Health and Science
School
School of Computing, Health and Science
RAS ID
4899
Abstract
The issue of water supply throughout the world is of concern for many reasons. A major factor is water pollution by industry, agriculture and residential sectors. Less than 3% of water is fresh and potable, while the remainder is saline. It is projected that by the year 2025, two-thirds of the world’s population will encounter moderate to severe water shortages. As a result of unsustainable development over the past decade, Thailand has faced pollution problems as well as the depletion of many natural resources. These problems have impacted the country’s main rivers (Chaopraya River, Thachine River, and the Bangpakong River), that are crucial to a sustainable economy, society, and culture. There needs to be a concentrated effort at all levels (individual to community) to address this problem. Individuals from specific communities can directly influence water quality in their own settlement or neighborhood. This paper reports on a collaborative water conservation project undertaken in the Talad Banmai and Talad Bone communities in Chachoengsao province, Thailand. Two hundred and nineteen community volunteers participated for five months in the Water Conservation Campaign (WCC).Many different types of activities were implemented in the communities with pre and posttest data being collected on a range of behaviours. This paper will discuss the campaign as well as the results which demonstrated the effectiveness of the WCC on the intervention group, compared with the control group in posttest and partial effectiveness in the follow up. Community involvement in a water conservation campaign is an effective, empowering and useful approach to address the issue of water pollution in the Bangpakong River.
Access Rights
free_to_read
Comments
Sathapornvajana, K. , Cohen, L. , Drew, N., & Pooley, J. (2006). Improving community water conservation behaviour in Chachoengsao, Thailand. Proceedings of EDU-COM 2006 International Conference. (pp. 436-446). Nong Khai, Thailand. Article available here