Comparative Study Between Gender Bias in Household Water Conservation and Management in Commune of Pelengana

Highlighting the practice of water conservation (PWC) is a safe way to accomplish water savings. Nevertheless, parameters affecting behavior change linked to water use keep uncertain. In this study, 467 residents (female: 272; male: 195) from three villages situated in the commune of Pelengana in Segou, Mali were investigated in order to analyze the effects of awareness, perceptions and individual water-use patterns control on PWC, and also the influence of gender on inhabitants' PWC. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by post-hoc LSD tests were used in analyzing different data. Participants were very familiar with PWC, but stated low involvement in PWC, especially among men consumers. Although women adopted more PWC than men, the amount of water consumed by these women was more twice greater that of men. Women consumers engaged in PWC principally to reduce water costs, while men consumers applied PWC principally for water scarcity reduction. Daily habits changes and demands of extra time and effort were the principal obstacles for PWC, notably for men consumers. In all, there is a pressing need to enhance information clarity and communication among gender, consumers, and decision-makers to strengthen social assistance for water conservation. Keywords: Water conservation, behavior, gender, awareness, water-use patterns, Mali's rural area DOI: 10.7176/JRDM/63-05 Publication date: March 31 st 2020


Introduction
Water destined for human consumption, and domestic uses are essential to maintaining a public health and it contributes to the quality of life of households through the provision of basic needs of water and sanitation. However, in low-income nations, particularly in rural areas, water distribution is consistently low, since high water quality is necessary and considerable investments generally required for equipment. Some noteworthy statistics from the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program 2017 (JMP) for Water and Sanitation reveal that in such areas, roughly 748 million people do not have access to sufficient safe drinking water. Additionally, 2.4 billion human beings lack access to improve sanitation conditions (WHO & UNICEF 2017). Governments, the World Health Organization (WHO) and several other development partners have tried to extend water distribution systems in order to ensure potable water supply in low-income countries. Thanks to their attempts, more than 2.6 billion human beings were able to access safe drinking water between 1995 and 2015. Nowadays, more than 90% of the world's population has access to potable water (WHO & UNICEF 2017). In Mali, hundreds million dollars has been invested in water distribution systems from 2005 to 2013, and roughly 1,700 modern water points have been built for 62% of the overall rural inhabitants by the end of 2013 (UN-WATER/WWAP 2016).
As noted by Coulibaly. (2009), water consumption for domestic use increased in households that have recently accessed improved water supplies. The consumption then goes from 4 liters per day and per capita to 10 liters in the rural areas of Mali (WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program. 2015). In rural Cameroon, inhabitants used 5 liters per day and per capita prior and 15 liters per day and per capita after the installation of community taps (Tyler et al., 2017). Designed water supply capacity frequently does not respond the growing request for water. This is an obstacle to the supply of potable water in rural zones even after receiving improved water supply (Jessica et al., 2014). As a result, restrictive policies such as irregular water supply and rising water prices are extensively performed at the rural levels. However, several studies have criticized these approaches for their non-equitable effects, health risks, and capacity to bring about water panic (Kumpel & Nelson 2013).
As increasing water distribution capacity is strongly affected by economic, environmental, and water resource constraints, governments, partners of development (NGOs), and scientists have been working together to find ways to reduce request from inhabitants (Programme 2012). Some measures were suggested to implement significant water savings. Some of the most effective measures include information action to the inhabitants, or more precisely "an awareness". It is going to be to change the behaviors, monitor its water bill, or water station's collective charges when billing is not direct, know its consumption and track its evolution to detect possible anomalies (monitor its meter), compare it to known averages, search for causes of discrepancy, check the condition of its facilities (gaskets, flushing) in case of aberrant consumption (Shove et al., 2010). It's worth noting that in Australian, domestic water use has been decreased by a mean of 19% from 2001 to 2004 thanks to information actions and request management (Yan & Liangxin 2017). According to Shove et al. (2010), domestic water use is projected to fall by 13.3% in England in 2030 owing water use attitude change. As a result, reducing water waste through behavior is not easy. Inhabitants may be reticent to change their manners owing to their personal characteristics, awareness, practices and even gender discrepancy (Yan & Liangxin 2017).
In rural areas, especially in low-income countries, it has been proved that women and girls are the principal stakeholders in the quotidian activities of households, namely collect and transport of water, cooking, laundry, washing, and hygiene (Garcetti & Kevany 2013). As a result, women are generally not considered equal to men in their involvement in water governance due to gender discrimination, ignorance, tradition and culture restrictions (Caruso et al., 2015). However, women's opinions and feelings, and also gender disparity in use and conservation behaviors, are systematically disregarded in collective policies (Liangxin et al., 2014). Such negligence leads to ineffective management of water resources (Garcetti & Kevany 2013).
The aims of our study are as follows: (1) to quantize and classify the difference in cognizance, perceptions and behavior regarding domestic water use with respect to gender (i.e. between males and females) in rural zones of Pelengana commune in Segou, Mali, (2) to identify the main factors of disparity between males and females in residents' water use behavior, and (3) to examine and recommend public policies to orientate inhabitants in adopting water saving practices.

Description of the study area
Our research was conducted in the rural commune of Pelengana in Segou region. The region is located in the center of Mali between 12°30'and 15°30' N latitude and 4° and 7° W longitude, with a total area of 62 504 km² and a population of 2 338 349 based on the 2009 census (RGPH 2009). Currently, the commune of Pelengana has more than 10500 displaced people. They are settled in villages inside the commune, and these villages are reported in ( Figure.1). Segou region has a sudano-sahelian climate with two seasons, dry season that lasts eight months (October-May), and rainy season that lasts four months (June-September). Rainfall of the region ranges from 200 to 800 mm per year and the average annual temperature is 28°C. Agriculture, livestock and fishing are the main activities of the region (OWAS 2007).
Guarantee clean water supply for quotidian use by rural inhabitants is the principal problem faced by the Ministry of Health in Mali. Highly polluted surface water makes the situation worked, roughly 95% of the water supply for domestic use is sourced from boreholes water (i.e. from underground water) (Amadou Toure 2018). However, designed water distribution system has therefore been unable to meet the increased request for water consumption. Consequently, 43% of the villages receiving borehole water had to switch to intermittent water supplies to limit water use.

Survey design and data collection
The questionnaire survey was carried out through face-to-face interviews throughout 5 months, from January to , and Bapho (female: 102; male: 58) in the commune of Pelengana. These 3 villages situated in Pelengana commune possess similar climate and socio-economic characteristics. Owing to the lowest level of literacy rates in the study area, informed consent was verbally getting before beginning with each interview and documented through the full completion of the survey. Identification codes have been assigned to each house and to each household member for reasons of anonymous conservation. Participants were informed that they were entirely free to stop the investigation at any time, for any reason and without providing justification. 13 incomplete questionnaires and 467 complete questionnaires including 272 females and 195 males have been recorded (Table 1).
Questions in the survey included household demographic information (age, educational status, household income, and household size), attitudes to water conservation (AWC), individual water-use patterns (perception of ease or difficulty in achieving water conservation) (WUP), expected outcomes (water-efficient practices, water scarcity reduction and environmental protection) (EO), social standards (public perception and decision-makers' attitudes with regard to water conservation) (SS), and practices of water conservation (PWC) ( Table 2). Likert scale has been used to quantify questionnaire responses. The responses were on a 5 point scale, with gradations: 1= not probable, 2= Somewhat improbable, 3= neither improbable nor probable, 4= probable, 5= Very probable. Noted that, higher scores designated a greater probability.

AWC3 Human being and environment
The natural environment is recognized as a 'user' in water legislation, and humans can change it with respect to their needs. AWC4 Water resource importance One of the most significant natural resources is water AWC5 Water conservation and environment Curtailment of water use is an important factor for the protection of environment. AWC6 Water preservation and human being Good upbringing and culture are the strong predictor of water-efficient behavior. Expected outcomes (EO)

EO1
Water conservation and supply Making efforts to conserve water is a sure way to solve the problem of water supply. EO2 Water conservation and scarcity It is important to constantly conserve water to avoid water scarcity. EO3 Water conservation and bills To save money on water bill, it is necessary to makes effort to conserve water. EO4 Water conservation and environment Water conservation represents important proenvironmental behavior for a sustainable way of life. It is desirable to wash many items at the same time and use the rinse water of a set of items as wash water for the next. PWC5 Kitchen Do not use running water to wash fruits and vegetables; rather wash them in a basin PWC6 All kitchen utensils must be washed together in a basin PWC7 Use a duster cloth to rinse the kitchen utensils (dishes) in order to avert useless rinsing with water PWC8 Home yard cleaning Sweeping the yards rather than using a hose PWC9 It's unnecessary to use water to clean yards, but necessary use minimal water for cleaning toilets PWC10 Watering vegetable garden Watering vegetable garden just before the sunrise or after sunset PWC11 Reduce strictly watering the vegetable garden.

Data analysis
Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS software version 21.0 after coding data from 467 completed questionnaires. A Cronbach's α test was used to evaluate the inner consistency of the quiz items. According to Yan et al. (2016), α >0.7 denoted suitable inner consistency. However, the groups AWC, EO, WUP, SS, and PWC possessed α values of 0.819, 0.841, 0.898, 0.862, 0.811 respectively. The characteristics, attitudes to water conservation, expected outcomes, individual water-use patterns, and social standards were compared with practices of water conservation between gender (male and female). Due to the non-normal distribution of the data, Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) test was applied to evaluate normality. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by post-hoc LSD tests was used to compare average values, using a 5% significance level (p<0.05).

Social-economic characteristics of the surveyed people
Statistical analysis of the demographic data was done and presented in

Water consumption and conservation practices of the surveyed people
The distribution of daily water among the genders towards various tasks is shown in Figure 2. Results showed that the amount of water consumption for women was more twice greater ( Regarding other activities including home yard cleaning, showering, and livestock, women respondents evenly used more water compared to the men responders. The practices of water conservation (PWC) considered by respondents during water use include personal hygiene (1 practice), showering (1 practice), laundering (1 practice), kitchen (1 practice), home yard cleaning (1 practice) and watering vegetable garden (1 practice). The amount of PWC performed by the female users outnumbers male users, particularly in using minimal water for brushing teeth or washing hands (PWC1), taking shorter showers (PWC2), by not using running water to wash fruits and vegetables (PWC5), using a duster cloth to rinse the kitchen utensils (PWC7), sweeping the yards rather than using a hose (PWC8), using minimal water for cleaning toilets (PWC9), and watering vegetable garden just before the sunrise or after sunset (PWC10) (

Attitude, expected outcomes, individual water-use patterns and social standards between male and female
Overall, participants had a positive (good) awareness towards environmental protection et comparatively weaker awareness towards water conservation (Table 5). They were seriously concerned about the environmental problems that they were facing and had a good understanding of environmental protection and use. However, they did not understand the correlation between water preservation and the environment, and also between water conservation and human being. Results show that men users detained more knowledge and a positive attitude towards conservation compared to the women users, especially as regards environmental problems and protection (AWC1 and AWC2), the link between water conservation and environment, and also between water conservation and human being (AWC5 and AWC6). The participants stated that water conservation translates to a relative reduction in water bills (EO3) and mitigate water scarcity (EO2). Women users used water conservation in order to save water costs (EO3), while men users practiced it principally to mitigate water supply scarcity (EO2). The both male and female doubted that PWC could have a significant impact on the environment (EO4). The primary obstacles to the practice of water conservation were daily activities changes (WUP1) and the necessity for extra time and physical energy provided (WUP2), especially for men users. An overwhelming majority of the participants, mainly men, felt that the public and water institutions were not actively engaged in water conservation campaigns.

Discussion
In rural Mali, the amount of water consumed by women is more twice that of men. Domestic activities are the main cause of such water consumption by women, as it has been proved in many low-income countries that women are the principal stakeholders in the daily activities of households, namely Algeria (Akli & Bedrani 2014), Ghana (Akuffo et al., 2013), Cameroon (Tyler et al., 2017), and Nigeria (Oloruntoba et al., 2014). As a result, women's views about the management and conservation of water resources must imperatively be taken into consideration. Interestingly, the notable differences between females and males are there regarding water fetching (Akuffo et al., 2013), water consumption (Yan & Liangxin 2017), and decision-making and politics (Ariadna 2018). This investigation revealed that there are significant differences between the awareness of water conservation and behavior of men and women. Females have adopted a lot of PWC than males; this conclusion is consistent with other previous studies, which have shown that women practiced more water-saving behavior compared to men (Hablemitoglu et al., 2017). In Mali, women outnumber men in adopting PWC, principally due to severe waterstressed environments, to their lived experiences and souvenir of hard periods of water scarcity. Studies have Journal of Resources Development andManagement www.iiste.org ISSN 2422-8397 An International Peer-reviewed Journal Vol.63, 2020 45 revealed a high correlation between past experience of water scarcity with water awareness and water use behaviors (Graymore et al., 2007). Gilg et al. (2006) stated that in addition to the adoption of PWC, the education of children, as well as the supervision of family members in the implementation of PWC are also assigned to women. In this work, it has been proved that female participants had a low level of education compared to male participants. In low-income countries, the absence of sufficient education of women is a great obstacle to their capacity to ensure adequate education and supervision of children and family members in order to achieve better water conservation (Fan et al., 2013). According to the most recent UNESCO estimates, there are around 796 million illiterate adults in the world, about 64% of whom are women. Additionally, it is estimated that 38% of African adults (about 153 million) lack minimal literacy and two-thirds of them are women (UNESCO 2015). As a result, women's education is a factor which needs to be duly considered to ensure effective practices of water conservation by the entire family and society.
Gender is a social variable that allows to differentiate, organize and structure the relationships between actors and actresses social (i.e. between females and males). It refers to the social relations (unequal or not) existing between men and women, in all fields (education, health, access to resources, participation in decision-making bodies) and all levels (individual, family, community, national and international). Thus, a participatory and equitable development of males and females must be promoted, ensuring equal and equitable access and control of resources and decision-making, while respecting their fundamental rights. Nevertheless, public water conservation policies are generally gender-neutral, indicating that gender differences are neglected (Yan & Liangxin 2017). Our study claimed that factors affecting PWC differ considerably across genders. Women consumers engage in practices of conservation principally because they hope for the positive outcomes about conservation (water bills reduction, water scarcity reduction) and social standards (public perception and decisionmakers' attitudes with regard to practices of water conservation). On the other hand, adoption of practices of water conservation by males depends primarily on their attitude, individual water-use patterns (perceptions of change in their daily activities, time and physical energy provided for water conservation practices), and social standards. Clearness of details with respect to water use by consumers is extremely important for water conservation (Bruns et al., 2015). In this study, it was revealed that this factor is so significant to women consumers compared to men consumers as they are more concerned about the well-being of others. The main reason that women have embraced PWC is the high cost of purchasing water. Indeed, water price is the principal indicator to consumers of the amount of water they consume (Yan & Liangxin 2017). However, other studies have claimed that utilization of water bills to promote PWC amongst consumers given discouraging findings in low-income countries (Styles et al., 2015). The diversity of water sources, bad types of equipment and management, and ineffective packages with other bills are the major obstacles to the clearness of prices (Fan et al., 2013).
Social standards refer to socially shared rules or individual patterns of behavior, based on common values and pressure for the adoption of an acceptable behavior (Lapinski & Rimal 2005). They reflect on individual knowledge of what others must accomplish and of what they believe an individual should perform . In this study, it was noticed that such social standards influence the conservation behaviors of both men and women consumers. The findings found in Nancarrow and Syme's (1989) study showed that public policy decisions can affect the public's water conservation behavior. This verifies the findings found in the study conducted by Jorgensen et al. (2009), which confirmed that, whether the public realizes that water management authorities and the remainder of the public are not trustworthy, they will not respect their water conservation recommendations. Therefore, this reflects the close relationship between trust and social standards. Trusted authorities and the public will encourage the effort of the individual to revise their behavior in order to adopt PWC while enhancing the ability to control his/her water-use patterns, which affects behavioral change among males and females. It is therefore essential to strengthen users ' confidence in the public and the authorities in order to bring about a change in behavior. It has been observed by Miao et al. (2013) that users' confidence depends on the information they are provided and, in some cases, on their confidence in those who provide information to them. However, such detail is generally absent, unclear and even self-conflicting due to mismanagement. As a result, translucency of information and circulation of messages between consumers, and authorities are very advantageous in creating networks of confidence in order to improve social standards and the ability to control individual water conservation behavior.

Conclusion
Ongoing increases of gaps among productive capacities and growing request for water is a serious menace to sustainable suitable drinking water supply and rural development. Inappropriate PWC of inhabitants could be assigned to the perceived poor result of PWC (poor perceptions of reduced water prices, reduction of water scarcity and environmental protection by PWC), poor control individual water-use patterns (unacceptance of daily activities changes and physical energy provided) and absence of social assistance (poor perceptions of the public and decision-makers i.e. the government about PWC), notably absence of account of gender equality and female's opinion on PWC. Women consumers engage in practices of conservation principally to reduce water costs, while men consumers adopt PWC principally for water scarcity reduction. Unwillingness to change daily habits and demands of extra time and effort are the principal obstacles to adoption of PWC men consumers, while the absence of social assistance is the principal obstacles to involvement of women consumers in PWC. Community-based strategies in the rural villages of Mali should be envisaged to encourage the PWC of inhabitants, including (1) highlighting gender equality and female's viewpoint while developing public policies that support water conservation; (2) establish a clear water price reform to encourage efficient water conservation by women consumers, and introduce a rebate system being whereby conserving water would be financially rewarded; and (3) enhance information clarity and communication among gender, consumers, and decision-makers to strengthen social assistance for water conservation.