Water consumer environmental awareness stagnates

Water customers’ awareness of how their actions impact the environment has fallen despite media and political attention on the sector.

Overall, 86% of water customers surveyed as part of CCW research said that they were aware of the impact of their actions. That is down from 91% a year earlier.

Awareness was highest in Wales, with 93% of those surveyed stating their behaviour had an effect, and 21% recognising that the effect was big. In England only 13% thought their behaviour had a big impact while 5% thought it made no difference at all.

Based on seven metrics, consumer watchdog CCW calculated an awareness index to track changes in sentiment and understanding of the water environment and compare demographical differences.

It recommended targeting communications to raise awareness at men, people aged 18-34, renters and non-billpayers as these demographics recorded the lowest environmental awareness scores.

CCW found specific areas of awareness did increase, specifically around the impact of personal water use with a 12% rise in the number of respondents who said they knew how to use less.

Significantly more people said saving money would be the only motivator to save water when interviewed in December 2022 (32%) compared to surveys the previous year (23%), showing the impact of the cost of living crisis. The year-on-year increase was most pronounced in Wales (35% from 25%) and the east of England (39% from 22%); for people not in work (36% from 21%) and women (31% from 19%).

CCW said communications on how conserving water could save money and protect the environment could land well with current public sentiment.

A rise in awareness of the environmental impacts of saving water from 82% to 90% of people without a water meter was seen.

However, understanding of what can be flushed or rinsed away actually dropped slightly over the year with fewer people recognizing the connection between these actions and harm to the environment. CCW suggested the fall from 93% in 2022 to 86% in 2023 highlighted a need to ramp up consumer campaigns to influence behaviours.

The consumer group highlighted the need for better awareness of where drinking water comes from and how to properly dispose of fats and oils.

CCW commissioned surveys in December 2021 and February 2022, then again in December 2022 to measure customer awareness that their behaviours impact the environment. It first reported data in 2022 to begin tracking changes.