Public engagement in integrated urban water management in Saudi Arabia: Teachers' perceptions in relation to water awareness

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of interpretative analysis of a survey to evaluate the potential for public engagement/ positive public participation in integrated urban water management (IUWM) in Saudi Arabia. The research targeted different stakeholders to investigate the current practices and visions, in order to determine the extent to which IUWM could be enhanced by positive stakeholder participation and public awareness. The paper concentrates on teachers'/schools' perspectives; even though the wider study investigates the views of a number of key public stakeholder groups within Saudi society, all of the selected stakeholder groups have a public interface within the selected section of society. Data collection was through in-person administering of hardcopy questionnaires in Riyadh, Jeddah and Albaha, collecting responses from a wide range of stakeholder groups, including teachers, policy makers, water professionals and managers, environmental managers, technical practitioners and engineers, industrial managers, lecturers and researchers, and from the general public. This paper presents initial findings of questionnaire responses of teachers in 60 schools (one teacher for each school), relating to teachers' perception of students' awareness level of water issues and the potential role of schools in raising levels of awareness and engagement.