Montanans Suffering Severe Drought Conditions Don't Care about Water

91.1% would spend on expenses other than life sustaining water system

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 28, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - With 18.4 million US citizens currently affected by droughts across the US, Montana is in particularly poor condition with exceptional drought and fire restrictions occurring around many parts of the state. According to a survey by FluksAqua, a free water and wastewater utility forum, drought-impacted Montanans were surprisingly tepid when asked how vital water is to their everyday lives. An abundance of drinkable tap water could be creating apathy for water-related environmental concerns.                          

Key Findings of the Survey:

Montanans use a lot of water, even if they're trying not to:

• With water-saving shower heads using 2.0 gallons of water per minute, 31.8% of respondents reported spending longer than 10 minutes in the shower; utilizing approximately 20+ gallons of water per shower even when they're trying to conserve water.

Montanans overwhelmingly rely on water first when it matters:

• When asked what is the most important item when prepping for a natural disaster, a definitive 51.7% of Montanans would secure water first compared to food (11.5%), communication (9.4%), money (2.7%), batteries (2.4%), lighting sources (1.9%) and other (20.4%).

But they may not care about keeping the water flowing:

• Surprisingly, 91.1% of Montanans would rather spend their tax dollars on expenses other than water.
  
  
• 37.6% believe that education is a more undervalued public industry than water and wastewater operation (14.0%).

Water … only after Welfare:

• Only a small number of Montanans would choose to invest in water systems with their tax dollars (8.9%) and only after education (33.7%), healthcare, (20.7%), roads and highways (12.5%) security (10.7%) and infrastructure (10.3%). In fact, the only tax dollar spend they would choose to avoid more is welfare (3.2%).

"A majority of Montana is in an exceptional drought right now with some cities even restricting smoking outdoors," said Dr. Hubert Colas, President of FluksAqua Americas. "Montana's water is a precious resource and we need to prioritize the water system year-round, not just in drought season, for it to remain in good health."

About FluksAqua:
FluksAqua (www.fluksaqua.ca/en/) is the world's largest online community created by a dedicated group of water and wastewater professionals to facilitate a constant and interactive flow of information between operators and professionals on issues of water safety, infrastructure, conservation and optimization.

SOURCE FluksAqua