Abstract:
The objectives of this research were to 1) study the use of water in the households of Krungthepnamthip Co., Ltd. employees, 2) study their level of knowledge, awareness and behavior concerning conservative use of water in households, 3) compare their knowledge, awareness and behavior concerning the conservative use of water in the households of employees of Krungthepnamthip Co., Ltd. The population for this study was the 200 employees of Krungthepnamthip Co., Ltd. The sample was purposively selected. Three employees from each of the 15 departments were selected for a total of 45 participants. Meanwhile, the study on the knowledge, awareness and behavior concerning the conservative use of water in households was conducted with all 200 employees. The research tools consisted of 1) semi-structured interviews for collecting the data on water usage in households with an IOC of 0.80-1.00, 2) a knowledge test with a discriminant power of 0.70-0.77 and a reliability value of 0.73, 3) a questionnaire on conservative water use awareness with a reliability value of 0.80 4) a questionnaire on conservative water use behavior with a reliability value of 0.74, and 5) semi-structured interviews for collecting the data on guidelines concerning conservative water use with an IOC of 0.80-1.00. The data were analyzed by content analysis as well as percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test and F-test. The results revealed that: 1) For the most part, the households of employees of Krungthepnamthip Co., Ltd. used provincial tapped water. Some used underground water produced from Suanprikthai Subdistrict Administrative Organization. Daily activities such as taking baths, cooking, car washing, tree watering, and house cleaning required the use of water. The average amount of water used was 75 liters/ day/ person. Additionally, Sunday was found to be the day with the most water used in a week. The average expense for using water was about 188 baht/month/household. 2) The knowledge and behavior of employees Krungthepnamthip Co., Ltd concerning conservative use of water in their households were at a low level (30.30 % and = 1.48, S.D. = 0.59), while their awareness level was high ( = 3.60, S.D. = 1.36). 3) The comparison study on the conservative use of water in the households of employees in Krungthepnamthip Co., Ltd by personal factors revealed that the gender factor significantly affected the behavior concerning water usage at the statistical level of 0.05. The education factor significantly affected the awareness of using water at the statistical level of 0.05. In addition, the income factor was also found to significantly affect both the awareness and the behavior concerning water usage at the statistical level of 0.05. 4) The proposed guidelines on the conservative use of water in the households of employees in Krungthepnamthip Co., Ltd aimed to reduce the amount of water used daily. Various approaches were suggested such as using a container to collect the water when brushing teeth, turning off the water while soaping and shampooing, turning off the water immediately after use, using hi-efficiency instruments to save water i.e. replacing water containers with showers, water recycling (i.e. watering trees and cleaning garage floors with reused water). In addition, relevant policies and support measures concerning conservative use of water should be determined by the chief executives of the organization.