Environmental Education and water consumption in homes in rural areas; [Educação Ambiental e consumo de água em residências da zona rural]

Abstract

Water is a basic resource for the survival of human beings, however, not everyone has access to this resource and they look for ways to survive under unfavorable conditions; for this purpose, environmental education focused on water safety consumption is fundamental to improve their habits. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the impact of an educational intervention in homes in rural areas that lack access to drinking water and is supplied by surface wells. A pre-experimental quantitative methodology was used that involves three stages: diagnosis, educational intervention and evaluation. The results showed that the educational intervention had significant changes in knowledge and water safety consumption habits (p < 0.001), furthermore learning persisted after the educational intervention and habits continued to improve; also, it was identified that there were no significant differences in gender and educational level. It is concluded that implementing short-term environmental education programmes contributes to bringing about change in vulnerable populations that do not have access to safe drinking water. © 2025, Instituto Internacional de Ecologia. All rights reserved.