An Investigation of the Relationship between Responsibility And Attitude towards Saving Water

There is clear evidence that because of irrational consumption, some parts of the world face problem of scarcity in natural resources. Natural resources of any society are its wealth that belongs not only to the present generation, but is a heritage that should be passed on to the future generations. The harmful outcomes resulting from shortage of natural resources has led, since the 70s, to several international conferences at the highest political level for optimal utilization of natural resources to achieve sustainable development. According to constitutional law of the Islamic Republic of Iran, preservation of the environment, both natural and human resources to achieve sustainable development, is considered as a national duty. Lack of natural resources such as fresh water is vital and quite evident. Of the total amount of water on earth, only 2.5 percent is fresh water, of which about two-third (68.9 percent) is trapped in glaciers and only a third of this amount is usable in such a diverse and uneven distribution. Based on current estimations, by 2050 at least 50 countries face shortage of fresh water, among which Iran is a country. Although the average rainfall in Iran is one-third of the global average, per capita consumption of water in all sectors, domestic, agricultural and industrial, is higher than the international standards. For example, per capita consumption of domestic water in Iran is 220 liters per day, while, this standard for world is only 75 liters. This shows that the amount of water consumption is a social problem in Iran. While in response to energy crisis many management strategies have been proposed, the fundamental solution in water crisis is saving. We try to review saving in water consumption in terms of various theoretical approaches, and consider the relationship between responsibility and tendency towards water consumption in particular. This research is a survey study. The statistical population is all citizens of Yasouj who are 18 years old and older. Sample size is 400 individuals who were selected by means of random multi-stage sampling method. The measurement tool is a researcher-made questionnaire measuring attitude towards saving water and responsibility. Attitude towards saving water was itself divided into three dimensions of cognitive, emotional and behavioral, and responsibility was also defined in terms of two aspects of individual and collective responsibility. Validity of the scales was measured by factor analysis technique, and reliability was calculated by cronbach's alpha coefficient. Based on the results, KMO test is 0.859 for attitude towards saving water, and 0.813 for responsibility, which show that the sample size is adequate. Moreover, Bartlett test is significant for both scales, suggesting that there is a significant correlation between variables. In total, the factor analysis of attitude towards saving water extracted three factors (after elimination of 9 items), and also factor analysis of responsibility extracted two factors (after deleting 3 items). The results show that the explained variance in the tendency toward saving water is 51.2 % and in responsibility 56.6 percent. The reliability of the scales has been calculated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient, the value of which was 0.77 for attitude towards saving water, and 0.80 for responsibility.Discussion of Results & On the basis of the scales results, the mean for attitude towards saving water is 50.4 within a range of 12-60 and the mean for responsibility is 39.5 within a range of 9-45. For the purpose of studying the relationship between responsibility and attitude towards saving, and their dimensions, simple linear regression test has been used. The results are presented in Table 1. As it can be seen, the relationship between responsibility and attitude towards saving is significant. Also, the table shows the relationship between each of the two dimensions of responsibility with each of the three dimensions of attitude toward saving is significant.Also, the results of the study show that there is no significant relationship between demographic variables (age, gender, marital status, education, income and ethic) and attitude towards saving water The mean for attitude towards saving is high. Therefore, based on the Ajzen and Fishbein' views (1975) regarding the relationship between attitude and behavior, we can be hopeful that attitude towards saving water will increase in cognitive, emotional and behavioral dimensions. Analytical results show that responsibility has a significant and positive effect on attitude towards saving. It is compatible with theoretical and empirical research. There is no significant relationship between age and attitude towards saving in water consumption.Overall, this study showed that the demographic variables do not have a significant relationship with the dependent variable.The fact that our society has a relatively dry climate and water consumption is high, it is necessary to save water, as water shortage crisis will be a fundamental threat in the future. Responsibility, a set of social skills that are learned during the learning process and lead to positive human relations, increase cooperation, success and satisfaction. It seems that, as this study showed, raising sense of responsibility among citizens is necessary in protecting water resources.