The NSMC is now working with the Jordan Social Marketing Center and Tetratech on a USAID funded project to improve water efficiency in households, industry and the service sector in Jordan.  Jordan is a "water poor" country that rations water to nearly all of its population.  Most households are supplied with water once a week this is then stored in water in tanks often on the roof.

This presents us with a complex behavioural challenge as we are not trying to cut down on water consumption in the household but to ensure that small amount of water that people have access to is used as efficiently as possible.  Early on in the project we identified a number of behavioural goals such as fixing leaks, using water efficient washing machines and using dual flush toilets. However, we had difficulty in finding an effective social marketing exchange to ensure people were encouraged to take up these new behaviours.  This is because the obvious exchange  - cost savings will not work when water is already rationed and the price is percieved by customers to be very cheap.

We will be working with our target audiences in June to try to develop and effective exchange which we think may involve something around increasing the amount of "beneficial" water for the household by reducing leaks and using water efficient products.  This would mean that they would be able to avoid using costly tanker water deliveries which are both expensive and inconvenient.  We will keep you posted on progress.