Public trust in water and wastewater services

A population study of trust in drinking water and wastewater, broken down by district, for a public body with a critical public mandate.

The challenge

Trust in water is something people only think about when something goes wrong. The organisation needed to know where trust actually stands before an incident tests it, and where in the city it is weakest.

How we approached it

We measured trust, knowledge and expectations in the population, and broke results down geographically by district. The analysis separates general trust in the service from specific expectations about handling and information.

The outcome

Trust levels mapped at district level, not just as a single city figure
A separation between what people know and what they expect, which implies different actions
A baseline for communication that can be measured again in the next round

Methods

Population survey

Geographic breakdown

Trust measurement

Case studies are anonymised. We are happy to share more in conversation.