Enhancing Outreach to Promote Water Conservation Practices on O‘ahu
Partner organization: Honolulu Board of Water Supply
Team members: Randolph Dyer (computer science ’24), Kendall Haddigan (data science ’24), Maggie Paratore (engineering ’24), Avery Purtell (aerospace engineering ’24)
Download the team’s final presentation.
In Hawai‘i and all over the world, freshwater is a limited resource being threatened by climate change, human activity, pollution, and water waste. To preserve an adequate supply for the future, everyone from businesses to residents should be practicing water conservation techniques and limiting excessive water waste. This is the message the Honolulu Board of Water Supply (BWS) hopes to convey by enhancing their methods of outreach and creating engaging communication tools.
While water conservation is a global issue, this effort is especially relevant in Hawai‘i as it holds a noteworthy cultural significance for Native Hawaiians. Freshwater, known as “wai” in Hawaiian, is regarded as a vital resource that is the root of all life, and as such must be protected. The BWS is one of many organizations that work to protect freshwater at each of its different stages in the water cycle.
The disruption of the water cycle is being exacerbated by the effects of climate change on the local environment. Changing temperatures, inconsistent levels of precipitation, deterioration of mountain watersheds, and droughts have all disrupted usual patterns of the water cycle on the islands.
Pollution events are also a major factor in the depletion of the water supply. A notable example is the continued leaking of jet fuel from the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility, first recorded in January of 2014. In the time since the first leak of almost 27,000 gallons of jet fuel, several others have occurred including an additional 19,000 gallons in 2021. These leaks directly affected access to freshwater for the nearly hundred thousand residents in military housing. The Navy water system is separate from the public water which remained unaffected, but the BWS closed the Hālawa shaft and several wells closest to the spill as a precaution. The garnered attention and protests have united many O‘ahu residents under the common goal of water protection. This crisis is still ongoing, as the tanks continue to leak and other chemical spills have occurred since the first documented incident. As such, it is likely that this will have effects lasting as long into the next decade as the Navy continues its process of defueling the storage facility.
The intricate relationship between the pollution events, aquifers, and water purification process can sometimes be complicated to communicate to the average person. There is often a disconnect between what scientists have concluded versus what is generally perceived by the public. Conveying these scientific details can lead to confusion and misunderstanding, and as a result, the Board is tasked with making the water conservation message clear, concise, and easily interpretable. This will be through ‘active’ forms of communication, ranging from reading materials and informational videos to interactive websites or in-person events. The results of these efforts will make themselves known through the continued value, care, and preservation of “wai.”
In addition to scientific miscommunications, the public has made their own inferences that inhibit taking individual actions to prevent overconsumption of water. For example, one misconception that is thought to be commonly held and which we encountered ourselves is that many residents may assume that significant economic sectors like tourism are the worst overconsumers of water. These assumptions are harmful to the BWS’s goal and they work strenuously to address and resolve them.
To ensure this, the BWS aims to foster a better understanding of water’s cultural significance on the island for younger generations. They currently educate kids aged K-12 through field trips, school curriculums, and annual calendar competitions. For adults under the age of 45, the BWS offers water usage calculators, conservation information, and a variety of rebates. The BWS is committed to ensuring that residents are fully aware of the multifaceted nature of this water crisis through communication, education, community events, and more.
To increase community awareness and promote water conservation practices on O‘ahu, our project’s goal was to assess the BWS’s outreach resources and enhance their efforts in respect to outreach. This involved the creation of communication tools aimed towards the youth and adults aged 18-45 years. To achieve our goal, we identified two objectives:
1. Identify potential barriers in communication
2. Create communication tools and assess for effectiveness
To fulfill these objectives, we created two surveys to gather the opinions of O‘ahu residents in our targeted age groups. Survey 1 assessed the residents’ current knowledge and practices related to water conservation and Survey 2 identified their communication preferences. In addition, we analyzed data provided by our sponsor, consisting of water usage across O‘ahu, and the current engagement of the BWS’s social media platforms. We also attended public meetings to gain further insight on the community-wide cultural significance of water on O‘ahu. Finally, we conducted several semi-structured interviews with environmental professionals including Wayne Tanaka and Kirsten Kagimoto of the Sierra Club, and Michael Inouye and Danielle Espiritu of the O‘ahu Water Protectors.
For kids (ages K-12), we decided to create a web-based memory matching game. The game was built using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The tips used in the game include some of the BWS’s 7 Conservation tips as well as three that were determined by research into water conservation materials specific to kids, in addition to discussion with our sponsor. In the creation of the deliverables for the adults aged 18-45 years, we developed a social media package using the online graphic design tool Canva. These posts were designed for the BWS Instagram account to relay their water conservation message.
Objective 1: Identify potential barriers in communication
Approximately three quarters of those surveyed consume information through social media very frequently, and almost half of residents surveyed learn about local environmental concerns through social media. When asked about their familiarity with the Board of Water Supply’s 7 Water Conservation tips, almost half of respondents were unfamiliar. Similarly, about one third of residents surveyed believe that they need more information, which prevents them from conserving water.
Additional barriers identified showed that approximately one third of residents surveyed believe that they do not make an impact, and a fifth of respondents felt that it does not matter if they conserve water when businesses “use more than them”. Finally, our research showed that younger adults (aged 18-25) that we surveyed, on average, take less steps to conserve water than older adults.
Objective 2: Create communication tools and assess for effectiveness
We created a web-based memory matching game to teach kids water conservation tips. The game is a standard matching game where the player tries to match two cards by flipping them over. If the cards do not match they get flipped over and the player must reattempt by flipping other cards over. We were able to get feedback from 15 students as well as three teachers for the game. We received positive feedback from all of the students saying that they enjoyed the game. The teachers felt that the game would be able to fit somewhere into their curriculum and also gave us some useful feedback.
Our recommendations encompass our suggestions for the use and future development of our deliverables. For the age group of K-12, we recommend implementing the game into the BWS’s already extensive youth outreach program. This can be done at their discretion, but based on our feedback from teachers, this game would work well in a classroom setting where students are able to either work in pairs or teams or be led through the activity by the instructor. We also recommend that the game be edited in the future to keep the tips and images up to date. It would also be possible to evolve the game to include short videos or animations in place of the image and text. This could potentially improve accessibility and engagement for very young children who might not yet have the ability to focus on information presented in this format.
For our adult deliverable, we created a social media package. After identifying the barriers to conservation of the residents surveyed, we determined social media as the most beneficial method of communication to be used. We created a 7-post series on Instagram that coincides with the BWS’s 7 Water Conservation Tips, starter posts including ‘debunk water myths’ and highlight local businesses, and a template for a weekly news update via Instagram Reels titled ‘Weekly Wai Update’. This news series contains short 60-90 second videos of a BWS staff providing followers with the latest water updates.
For the deliverables targeted towards adults, we have compiled a list of recommendations for the implementation of the social media package. This includes strategies for the reiteration of the 7 tips, ways to carry out the Instagram Reels news series, and suggestions for further outreach to multi-use residential customers among others. We also recommend focusing outreach regionally based on areas with the highest water usage. Finally, we recommend the installation of a social media management system and the further testing of communication tools to assess their effectiveness.