Perception of conventional and unconventional resources in areas subject to water stress: The case of Alicante

© 2015, Revista de Geografia Norte Grande, All rights reserved. The so-called conventional water resources are increasingly subject to social contestation due to their environmental and socio-economic impacts. In parallel, various alternative resources are being implemented, such as desalination and reuse of treated wastewater. Despite their great potential, we have a limited understanding of how these alternative resources are perceived by the population, particularly whether they will be accepted or not. This article presents a case study of the province of Alicante, an area along the Spanish Mediterranean coast with a delicate water balance, to explore public perceptions of various alternative water sources, with special emphasis on the reuse of treated wastewater. Herein we present a survey of 450 residents from ten municipalities within the region of Alicante. The main results show that, desalination; the main strategy carried out in Spain to replace dams, does not appeal to respondents and lags behind rainwater and the reuse of reclaimed water in terms of social preferences. The survey shows that water reuse would be widely accepted provided that it is used in forms that do not involve direct contact with the human body.