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Public Attitudes to the Environment in Scotland

CHAPTER FIVE DRINKING WATER QUALITY AND ENERGY PRODUCTION

This chapter reports on public attitudes towards the provision of two essential services; drinking water (Section 5.1) and the production of electricity (Section 5.2).

Under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1994, public water and sewerage services were the responsibility of three publicly controlled water authorities, the East of Scotland Water Authority, the West of Scotland Water Authority, and the North of Scotland Water Authority. In April 2002, these three authorities merged to form a new public body, Scottish Water. Fieldwork for the present survey took place between February and June 2002 and thus spanned the creation of the new organisation. Key challenges for Scottish Water in providing water for the 95% of households in Scotland connected to the public water supply are the continued provision of high quality water and improvements in efficiency. In 2002, 99.3% of drinking water supplies passed strict quality criteria ⁵⁴.

Energy policy in Scotland feeds into the wider UK policy on energy and some electricity generated in Scotland is currently exported to England. Currently, energy policy is driven by a desire to reduce the greenhouse gases emitted in electricity generation, recognition that coal, oil and gas are non-renewable resources, and wider environmental concerns associated with different forms of power generation. Obviously, issues of cost, safety and capacity are also very important.

5.1 VIEWS ON DRINKING WATER QUALITY

As Table 2.1 showed, the quality of drinking water was an issue about which over half the people surveyed (57%) initially said they were worried. When asked to comment on how satisfied they were with the quality of their tap water, over 75% of people stated that they were satisfied or very satisfied, while 15% were dissatisfied (Figure 5.1).

Looking at Table 5.1, owner occupiers were more satisfied with their tap water than other tenure groups. A third of owner occupiers (33%) said that they were very satisfied with their drinking water quality, while only a quarter (24%) of social renters thought the same. There were small differences in satisfaction by urban or rural location. Those who were most satisfied were respondents living in other urban areas, accessible small towns and remote small towns.

Respondents were asked to comment on whether they felt the quality of drinking water had got better or worse during the last five years, and also whether they thought that drinking water quality would improve or deteriorate over the next five years.

As Figure 5.2 shows, almost 70% of respondents said that they had not noticed any difference in the quality of their drinking water over the past five years. Twelve per cent thought that quality had declined over this time and slightly fewer thought that it had improved (9%). A greater proportion of those living in rural areas said they had noticed a decline in water quality during this time. Two in ten respondents from remote rural areas (21%) and 15% of those from accessible rural areas thought their water quality was worse or a little worse, compared with 7% of respondents from urban areas outside of the large urban areas (Table 5.2).

Most respondents did not expect their drinking water quality to change over the next five years (61%), however one in five (21%) expected an improvement and 8% expected it to get worse (Table 5.3).

Respondents were asked whether they had noticed any problems with their tap water and the results are presented in Table 5.4. Overall, six in ten people (62%) said they had not noticed any significant problems with the appearance or taste. A quarter (24%) commented that they had noticed 'cloudiness in their tap water (taking time to clear in a glass)', 20% noticed a 'chemical taste or smell', 10% that the 'tap water was an unusual colour (not cloudy)' and 1% reported that the tap water 'made people who drank it ill'.

When these problems are examined by what people thought about the quality of their drinking water, it emerges that nearly six in ten people (59%) who were either very dissatisfied or dissatisfied with their water had noticed a chemical taste or smell and that five in ten had noticed cloudiness (50%). Just under three in ten (27%) dissatisfied people reported that they had observed an unusual colour. Of those people who said they were satisfied or very satisfied with their drinking water, three quarters (74%) had not noticed any of the listed problems.

* Respondents could select as many answers as they wished.

As Table 5.1 showed, nearly eight in ten people (79%) were satisfied or very satisfied with their tap water. Despite this overall satisfaction with drinking water quality, the survey found that 26% of all people normally drank bottled water at home and a further 3% used filtered water (table not shown). More than half (57%) of bottled or filtered water users had noticed at least one of the potential problems with their tap water described in Table 5.4 (Table 5.5). In contrast, only four in ten people (43%) who did not drink bottled or filtered water normally at home said that they had experienced any of the problems with their tap water.

Those respondents who did drink bottled or filtered water at home were asked why they did this. Almost four in ten people thought that bottled or filtered water had a better taste than tap water (39%), and a similar number thought that it was better quality than tap water (38%). Less popular reasons were that this water was in some way healthier than tap water (22%) and 12% said that bottled water fitted in better with their lifestyle (Table 5.6).

In terms of the type of people that drink bottled or filtered water, it is interesting to note that those from remote rural areas were most likely to do this (36%). A third of women (33%) said they normally used bottled water, but only a quarter of men said the same (25%) (Table 5.7). Also, a higher proportion of respondents in households with children (33%) preferred bottled water compared with those in households without children (27%).

* Respondents could select as many answers as they wished.

Respondents were also asked about their use of tap water when they were away from home. The results are given in Table 5.8. Over half responded that they tended not to drink tap water when away from home ⁵⁵ (53%) and those from households with children were more likely not to drink tap water away from home than those households without (59% compared with 50%). Age and sex were also related to whether tap water was drunk away from home. Just under six in ten 16-24 and 25-44 year olds said that they tended not to drink tap water away from home (57% and 58%). In contrast, only 44% of people over the age of 65 said the same. Women were also less likely to drink tap water when away from home than men (49% of men, but 57% of women tended not to).

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