🎥 Survey finds opportunity to target residential landlords with water rebate programs

By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

Not a lot of Fort Hays State University students living off campus are participating in Hays’ water conservation programs, but most of them would like to reduce their water use.

A survey of nearly 500 Hays residents by a group of FHSU students known as Water Wise Tigers shows there may be an opportunity for the city to target incentives to property landlords.

Sociology major Kiley Heine presented the findings to the Hays city commission Thursday night.

“Eighty-six percent of the students in our sample live in rental homes. Offering policies or programs that give property owners an incentive to invest in and install water-saving fixtures in rental homes such as low-flow shower heads, faucet aerators, low-flow toilets and high efficiency washing machines may help bridge the social gap between students’ desire to contribute to water-saving efforts and the reluctance to invest in water-saving fixtures and appliances,” Heine reported.

Hays Mayor Henry Schwaller (right) thanks FHSU student Kiley Heine and Dr. Brett Zollinger for the survey about water conservation attitudes in Hays.

Other students in the Water Wise Tigers group are Diane Hernandez-Ramirez and Amanda Buday, who conducted the research under the direction of Dr. Brett Zollinger, chairman of the Department of Sociology.