Universidad Nacional de Loja, School of Economics, Loja, Ecuador.
Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, School of Agrobussines, Loja, Ecuador.
J Environ Manage. 2021 Sep 1;293:112818. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112818. Epub 2021 Jun 1.
One of the essential environmental goods is water, thus, some governments have implemented policies that allow regulating and protecting this valuable resource. Additionally, it is necessary to understand the behaviour of people to its consumption. The objective of this paper is to determine which socioeconomic factors have a greater influence on water-saving practices in households in Ecuador and thus be able to recommend policy formulations that help to conserve it. The database for the Monitoring Survey for the National Development Plan applied by the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses [INEC] (December 2019) was used. The sections of the survey that were used to obtain the variables were: education, environmental information, housing, and household data. Furthermore, the econometric logit model was used to identify the factors that influence water-saving practices in the home and five main dependent variables were taken into account: closing the taps while soaping the dishes or doing other activities, showering for less than 10 min, using a bucket and not a hose for certain activities, checking pipes regularly and water reuse while the independent variables were grouped into two groups: socio-economic and environmental awareness and responsibility. The results show that the most significant determinant variables of water-saving practices for households in Ecuador are gender, marital status, homeownership, and the main finding is the variable of perception of environmental problems, which is significant in most of the proposed models. Finally, as a policy implication, in addition to the tax burden on water consumption, governments can implement campaigns that promote awareness, saving, and the proper use of this resource; laws can also be established that sanction the misuse of water.
其中一项基本的环境商品是水，因此，一些政府已经实施了政策，允许对这种宝贵资源进行监管和保护。此外，还需要了解人们对其消费的行为。本文的目的是确定哪些社会经济因素对厄瓜多尔家庭的节水实践有更大的影响，从而能够提出有助于节约水资源的政策建议。本研究使用了国家统计和人口普查研究所[INEC]应用的国家发展计划监测调查数据库（2019 年 12 月）。用于获取变量的调查部分包括：教育、环境信息、住房和家庭数据。此外，还使用了计量经济学逻辑模型来确定影响家庭节水实践的因素，考虑了五个主要的因变量：洗碗或做其他活动时关水龙头、淋浴时间少于 10 分钟、使用桶而不是软管进行某些活动、定期检查管道和水的再利用，而自变量则分为两组：社会经济和环境意识与责任。结果表明，对厄瓜多尔家庭节水实践影响最大的决定因素变量是性别、婚姻状况、住房所有权，而主要的发现是环境问题感知变量，在大多数提出的模型中都是显著的。最后，作为政策含义，除了对水消费征税之外，政府还可以实施促进意识、节约和合理利用这一资源的宣传活动；还可以制定法律，制裁滥用水资源的行为。
