Household preference for wastewater reuse/recycling practice determinants in a growing community in Nigeria

Abstract

Wastewater recycling has been considered one way of ensuring sustainable water accessibility for domestic purposes through the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This work investigated the factors that guide the preference for water recycling in Iwo, Osun State, Nigeria, to encourage its practice in homes. A survey was conducted among 205 randomly selected respondents in the study area to generate the data required to achieve the objectives of the study. Both descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were used using SPSS version 16.0. The study revealed that 79.3% of the respondents, mostly women, responded “nay” to wastewater reuse, attributing this to good access to fresh water, among other reasons. The factor analysis (FA) of the 13 variables obtained from the field extracted six variables that gave 76.542% of the variance about the respondents’ preference for wastewater recycling, namely: 1) method of producing wastewater; 2) proportion of the wastewater available for use; 3) volume of wastewater generated; 4) level of support for the practice of wastewater recycling; 5) perception about wastewater; and 6) reasons for wastewater recycling. Further analysis revealed that the six variables could be summarized into two, with the first three factors forming the first and the last three variables forming the second group: issues related to wastewater production and human attitude-related factors. Therefore, we reject the alternative hypothesis (H 1) and accept the null hypothesis (H0 ) that th e availability of wastewater does not hinder households’ preference for its use. The work concluded that the preferences for wastewater recycling are associated with issues about its production and human attitude/perceptions about wastewater. Public enlightenment and wastewater treatment technology in the study area and similar communities could probably enhance the preference for wastewater recycling.