Raising Awareness about Water Issues: The Role of Water Symbolism and Proverbs

Sustainable water management is one of the global grand challenges of our time. Tackling this challenge through corrective actions would require the participation of the general public, a public with sound awareness of the challenge and commitment. One such awareness raising intervention could be through the use of water symbolism and proverbs, targeted to particular society. Water has the different symbolism and levels of importance to people, depending of their personal characteristics and socio-demographic factors (e.g. gender, age, occupation, residence). Similarly, water proverbs can also demonstrate attitudes towards water among communities, ethnic groups and whole nations. Such meanings and symbolism could help determine attitude and be a powerful tool towards education. In this context, we describe and propose a psychological Health Belief Model (HBM) as a way to explain behaviour and stimulate sustainable water management practice.