PUBLIC AWARENESS AND ATTITUDES TOWARD VARIOUS USES OF RENOVATED WATER

Public awareness and knowledge in the State of Bahrain regarding various aspects of wastewater were assessed along with the public's attitude toward various specific uses of reclaimed water during different conditions. Data were obtained by a survey of 500 respondents. The results indicated that a large percentage of the individuals surveyed were not aware of the basic and simple aspects concerning wastewater. Most respondents were strongly opposed to using reclaimed water regardless of the conditions and were willing to pay more to avoid using it. However, the opposition decreased as one moves from ingestion to bodily contact and finally non-bodily contact. The reasons for the opposition were mainly health risks, psychological repugnance. and religion. Knowledge and attitudes of the respondents were found mainly to be dependent on the level of education and age. Comparing the present finding with previous works, it can be concluded that people in many countries in the world regardless of their differences, have similar attitudes toward the various uses of reclaimed water.