The Effects of Water Conservation Kits on Water Use

In the last few years water conservation measures have included increased media campaigns on how to use water more productively; the installation of such water-saving devices as flow restrictors; the introduction of new water-saving technology (drip irrigation); and the provision of financial incentives by changing rate structures, raising prices, or establishing surcharges when water use exceeds some designated amount.* For many agencies several conservation measures or campaigns are established and implemented simultaneously, making it very difficult to separate the effects of one conservation measure from another. To aid in the evaluation of such conservation measures, this paper reports on the water conservation efforts of a single campaignthe installation of conservation kits in a residential neighborhood in Southern California. By mid-1977 the intensity of the drought in Southern California was at its peak. The city of Oxnard, Calif., decided to conduct an active conservation effort by distributing a water conservation kit free of charge to a large, single geographic area. Coordinated by a student intern from the University of California at Santa Barbara and two CETA employees, distribution of an estimated 3200 water conservation kits was accomplished in a large residential neighborhood during August 1977. The water conservation kits contained three separate components: a water guard or dam to reduce the quantity of water flushed in the toilet; a plastic shower head flow restrictor; and a packet of vegetable dye tablets to detect leaks from toilet storage tanks. The Oxnard water conservation team returned one month after distributing the water kits and interviewed 637 households that received the water conservation kit. The socioeconomic characteristics of the households that used and installed the water conservation kits were determined, as was the impact of these kits on water savings, including estimates of the cost effectiveness of this specific conservation effort.