KAP Survey on Seawater Desalination among Residents in Shengsi County

Objectives To describe the residents' attitude, knowledge and practice (KAP) on seawater desalination in Shengsi, and to understand the possible problems of using desalinated water as the municipal water supply.

Methods A questionnaire survey was conducted among residents selected by stratified cluster sampling.

Results 690 questionnaires were sent out and 675 valid questionnaires were collected. The response rate was 97.8%. It showed that awareness rate about the knowledge of desalinated water is 48.47%. 34.5% of the residents select to use desalinated water, and 30.4% of the sample population chose to follow the opinions of the majority, while 34.7% of the population refused to use desalinated water. 47.2% of the population didn't use tap water as drinking water. Communication with others is the main channel to get information about desalinated water (44.6%), followed by the internet media(40.4%).

Conclusions There are some doubts on the quality of desalinated water among Shengsi residents, and the degree of acceptance of desalinated water is not high. Lacking of comprehensive knowledge of desalinated water may be an important factor.