Waterrewardsexperiments

Water Rewards Experiments

Water Rewards will offer the collection of high quality data related to water consumption. It will be possible to carry out statistical investigations which will answer many questions on the factors influencing water consumption by households.

Questions relating to the infrastructure of households

When households sign up for Water Rewards, they will be asked to supply information about variables such as the number of residents, the ages of the residents, the size of the house block, the number of flush toilets and whether a rainwater tank is installed. Past and future consumption data will be used as the dependent variable in a linear modeling exercise which will estimate the effects of each of the measured variables on water consumption.

Questions relating to intervention by householders

After having signed up for Water Rewards, some households will install devices with the intention of reducing water consumption. For example, households may install rainwater tanks or they may replace a single flush toilet with a dual flush toilet. Using past consumption data and consumption following the installation of the device, a longitudinal analysis will provide estimates of the effect of the intervention on water consumption.

Questions relating to intervention by Water Rewards

The aim of offering Water Rewards is to encourage households to reduce water consumption. Past and future consumption data will be used as the dependent variable in a linear modeling exercise which will estimate the effect of Water Rewards on water consumption. In addition, it may be that the method of offering Rewards in all geographical areas will be not be the same. Consumption data from those areas will be used to estimate the effect of each method of offering Rewards, to determine the optimum method.
In each of these statistical investigations a proper design would include consideration of the number of observations needed to produce useful results. The pilot study would provide the information needed for that aspect of the design.