In many developing countries, household water demand exceeds the capacity of the public water supply, because of rapid population increases and underdeveloped water treatment plants. The use of rainwater for non-potable purposes is considered as a useful way to address this issue, because it is easy to store and does not require complicated treatment to use. To expand rainwater use, it is necessary to gain public acceptance on rainwater use. Previous studies on water resources other than rainwater (i.e., desalinated water, recycled water) reported that people having detailed information on resources accept use of them. Hence, it was assumed that providing information on rainwater usage (e.g., quality, available volume, payback period for the tank) may gain public acceptance on rainwater use. In this study, public acceptance was investigated before and after providing information of rainwater for 100 households in Galle area, Sri Lanka. The results suggested that providing information is an efficient way to gain public acceptance on rainwater use for toilet, laundry, bath, and washing basin, but not for kitchen and outdoor. It was also found that payback period for the tank have influence on gaining public acceptance statistically.
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