A study on the UK public’s awareness and understanding of freshwater issues and the predicted affects

Abstract

Public awareness, understanding and opinions on any subject are thought to be at the forefront of change, not just concerning personal behaviour, but in impacting government policy. With this as a basis, the following research aimed to look at the UK public’s awareness and understanding of freshwater and the related issues, as well as the North West public’s opinion on freshwater conservation. By using questionnaires given to the public, both by hand as well as online, this research found that only a small percentage had a basic understanding of freshwater, and whilst the majority believed there are issues relating to freshwater, some of the public believed that they would not be affected by the majority of the impacts. This was again shown when looking at the North West public’s opinions on conservation, as these doubts reflected on their beliefs to conservation, yet most were open to the idea of conserving water in order to try and prevent the issues individuals mentioned when questioned.