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A study to identify general water consumption patterns of domestic household users for promotion of sustainable use of water will be conducted from early August.
Under the Domestic Water Consumption Study 2011 to be conducted from August 9 to the end of this year, 1,000 domestic households will be selected randomly by the Water Supplies Department (WSD) from the customer database of the department for face-to-face interviews on their water consumption habits, their levels of awareness and their views on current promotion activities concerning water conservation.
Such information will help the WSD to identify general domestic water consumption patterns and design a series of effective and comprehensive water conservation initiatives for households.
The new initiative is part of the WSD's efforts to further improve the Government's Total Water Management strategy, which places an emphasis on containing growth of water demand through conservation. The WSD has been implementing a series of water conservation measures, including strengthening public education on water conservation and promoting the use of water-saving devices through the launch of a voluntary water efficiency labelling scheme.
The WSD has commissioned a consultant to conduct the study. Each selected household will be informed by a letter issued by the WSD not less than two weeks in advance of its interview. The letter will contain a scheduled date and time for the interview and a sample of the interviewer's staff ID card. The participant may call the enquiry hotline to arrange another date and time for the interview if required.
The interviewer will visit the selected household twice, carrying an authorisation letter issued by the WSD and the staff ID card for identification.
During the first visit, the interviewer will conduct face-to-face interviews with all household members as far as practicable. Each household member will be requested to record their home water consumption in a given log book for a week. Interviewers will record the initial reading of the water meter and information related to water use such as the size of the bathtub, the water consumption of the washing machine and the flow rates of taps and showerheads. The visit will take about 20 minutes. The interviewer will visit the household one week later to collect the log book and take a second reading of the water meter. The time taken will be about five minutes.
Information collected from the study will be kept strictly confidential and will only be used for the purposes of the study. Data will be destroyed upon completion of the study. As a token of appreciation, each participating household will receive a souvenir after the study.
An enquiry hotline, 2866 2279, has been set up and will operate from 9am to 10pm for any enquiries and matters related to the study during the study period. Information on the survey is also available at the WSD website: www.wsd.gov.hk/filemanager/common/domestic_water_consump_study_e.pdf.
Ends/Friday, July 15, 2011
Issued at HKT 16:22
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