Awareness

Public awareness means the general level of understanding of a certain topic. So raising awareness for water issues/ sanitation is a way to build a common understanding to create shared values on how water should be used and managed.

Raising awareness is not the same as telling people what they are supposed to do. It is explaining issues and providing knowledge so that people can make their own, informed decisions. There are two different areas that activities to raise awareness should cover. One is the more general public awareness, which involves wide-spread acknowledgement and understanding of cleanliness issues. The other one is self-awareness, which means understanding the relation between resources and societal impacts. Related to self-awareness, citizen science programmes can be a fun way for the public learn about and participate in monitoring their local water resources.

The aim of raising public awareness for water issues is to engage the public in topics such as: water conservation; hygienic water use; or preservation of ecosystems. Other issues are the development of self-regulating water institutions, increasing the willingness to pay or contribute to water services; awareness for planning for emergencies; and strengthening political will. Ideally, public awareness is not a one-way communication, but an interaction of many active stakeholders, who influence each other and provide social control by mutually reinforcing agreed sets of values.

Awareness can be raised through a variety of channels which should be coordinated in a bigger communications strategy. Those channels include water campaigns, engaging with environmental Govt. Organisations and community groups, making information available to the general public through inventories and providing information to the public through product labelling etc.