Abstract
Understanding the relationships among perceptions, behaviors and awareness of environmental initiatives is important for both policy makers and social scientists. There is, however, limited consensus among scholars as to the reasons for differences and similarities among ethnic and socio-economic groups in their environmentally related attitudes and behaviors. South Africa, which has established a constitutional right to a safe environment, together with the presence of parallel first and third world populations, offers an unusual setting in which to examine these issues. Using the 2004 South African General Household Survey, the similarities and differences between African and non-African households with respect to the perceptions, behaviors and awareness of programs related to water and water pollution are examined. Africans and those with lower socio-economic status are more likely to perceive water pollution as a community problem; educational attainment is unrelated to this perception. In combination with perception of water pollution as a problem, education is positively related to taking action to treat water for drinking and food preparation. Awareness of a highly touted program to clear waterways of alien vegetation is strongly positively related to socio-economic status, and is much more common among non-Africans than Africans.
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Acknowledgments
Helpful comments were provided by Pieter Kok, Louis van Tonder and Paul Mohai. The research upon which this paper was based was supported by a National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development Infrastructure Grant HD41028 to the Population Studies Center, University of Michigan, by the Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria, South Africa, and by Statistics South Africa. Anderson and Romani were Visiting Researchers in the Urban and Rural Economic Development Research Programme at Human Sciences Research Council, and Anderson was a Visiting Analyst at Statistics South Africa when this paper was prepared.
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Anderson, B.A., Romani, J.H., Phillips, H. et al. Exploring environmental perceptions, behaviors and awareness: water and water pollution in South Africa. Popul Environ 28, 133–161 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11111-007-0038-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11111-007-0038-5