David Perrott Profile picture
Learning in public.

Jan 26, 2018, 10 tweets

Behavioural scientists/designers/practitioners of Twitter I'd like your help.
(Thread)

1/n You may have heard about the water usage challenges Cape Town is experiencing currently (The city is about 80 days away from running out of water - more at #DayZero ).

2/n This would mean only a select few institutions (hospitals, schools, core CBD) would get access to water. Everyone else needs to use designated collection points-> increasing water conflict, theft, disrupting the local economy and heightening the chances of disease outbreak.

3/n We are in need of a radical shift in citizen behaviour in order to avoid this. The latest results have revealed that less than 50% of citizens are complying with the daily maximum usage, and as this amount drops to 50L per a day, lower compliance is expected.

4/n Some of the contextual variables to consider include:

- The lack of usage visibility creating a large free rider issue
- People struggle to see how complying can have an impact (drop in the bucket problem)
- The psychological impact of scarcity (myopic, selfish thinking)

5/n Current interventions in place:
- Public awareness campaigns (social media, roadside, radio, billboard, etc)
- Usage visibility maps. For example: capetown.gov.za/Family%20and%2…
- TBC: Throttling (reducing resident water pressure)

6/n If you have any relevant sources/practical insights/interventions ideas on how we could increase citizen compliance (lower daily water usage to the 50L mark), please share them here.

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