Deakin study focuses on water attitudes

DEAKIN University is hosting a series of focus groups for a research project exploring attitudes towards alternate water sources.

The research is being led by School of Humanities and Social Sciences PhD candidate Christina Semasingha.

Ms Semasingha is a water industry professional with nearly a decade of experience in water research. She said learning the community’s perspective on water management will be crucial going forth.

“I am very keen to understand how the community feels about their water use, supply, quality and distribution and listen to their ideas about how we manage our water supplies in the future.”

The focus groups will involve about six to eight people from the community completing a draft survey.

Ms Semasingha said the responses and feedback to this survey would inform a second survey that would be released to the wider community in April this year.

“The purpose of these initial focus groups is to hone our investigation so that our research is most relevant and most useful to the community.”

She said people had become more conscious about water management.

“The climate is becoming drier and the way people use water in their homes and businesses has changed significantly over the previous decade, particularly since the Millennium Drought.

“There is an increasing interest in better understanding community attitudes to water, with researchers and water utilities around the country giving greater attention to this issue than in the past.”

Focus groups will be held at Deakin University Waterfront Campus in Geelong from noon-2pm on Tuesday, February 18, and in the Queenscliff Masonic Centre from 10am-noon on February 22.

Groups will also be held at later dates in Meredith and Corio.

People can book their place by heading to eventbrite.com and searching “Deakin Water Research focus group”.

.