Capacity Building as A Policy Instrument in Water Conservation: A Case Study on Commercial, Industrial, and Institutional Consumers

Lewis Reed ()

Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), 2012, vol. 26, issue 13, 3819-3829

Abstract: Efforts by municipal water agencies to improve demand end water use efficiency have focused largely on incentive programs and regulatory interventions. However, another important approach to achieving conservation targets is capacity-building, which may be particularly effective when target populations are motivated to improve their consumption efficiency but are lacking information or technology to do so. This case study considers a program by the Santa Clara Valley Water District (CA, USA) which aims to enable conservation among a group of consumers by providing information about current use and potential savings as well as optional access to water saving devices. The impact of this capacity building approach on consumption patterns was quantified by comparing water histories of program participants to a control group of similar sites within the District. Participating sites showed a net savings of 18.22 % when compared to the control group. The study demonstrates that capacity building approaches can effectively compliment other interventions such as conservation incentives to improve demand end water use efficiency. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012

Keywords: Water conservation; Policy instruments; Demand management; Capacity building (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11269-012-0105-2

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