Water saving practices conditioned by socioeconomic factors: A case study of Ecuadorian households

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: socioeconomic 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.