Public participation in rural domestic sewage treatment: a study from Inner Mongolia of China

Rural domestic sewage is the primary source of rural non-point source pollution in China. In rural domestic sewage treatment, it is faced with the risk of insufficient public participation of rural residents, which leads to the unfavorable promotion of sewage treatment projects or idle after completion. Therefore, improving the effective participation of rural residents in sewage treatment is the key to the success of rural sewage treatment projects. Based on an investigation into Inner Mongolia's rural and pastoral areas, this study selected 48 villages from 12 cities as the research object. Fourteen influencing factors were identified and evaluated based on Gt-Dematel-Ism integrated analysis model constructed and the hierarchical relationship among the influencing factors was characterized. The results show that: (1) to fundamentally improve the level of public participation of farmers at this stage is to enhance their awareness of environmental protection, with an emphasis on carrying out environmental protection education. (2) "participation mechanism", "technology choice", and "economic factors" are all necessary means of enhancing the willingness to participate in sewage treatment. (3) the "participation mechanism" can improve farmers' sense of identity with rural sewage treatment projects. "Technology selection" enables farmers to better understand the projects they are involved in. The focus of "economic factors" is to lighten the burden on farmers.