Fifty per cent said that the quality and availability of drinking water and waste management have improved. Nearly 70 per cent said citizens use more water than required, but only 17 per cent were willing to pay the actual cost of the subsidised water they use. These findings are part of the TERI annual Environmental Survey 2014 that was released on Tuesday.

The survey threw light on public attitudes on various environmental issues, including perceptions on the ‘environment versus development’ debate. The survey, carried out in collaboration with the Department for International Development (DFID), UK’s international development agency, covered eight cities including Delhi. Water and waste were the focus in this year’s survey, the second year of the survey, said TERI researchers.

The survey had a sample of 11,214 respondents spread over eight cities – Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, Kanpur, Coimbatore, Jamshedpur, Indore and Guwahati – and drew responses through face-to-face interviews held between December 2013 and February 2014.

A very high proportion of respondents, 90 per cent, agreed that climate changes were taking place, with 95 per cent saying that temperatures had increased and 64 per cent saying rainfall had reduced. Nearly 40 per cent said tree cover, surface water, and bird species’ habitats had changed for the worse.

A high proportion of the respondents were aware of the hazards of electronic waste, and nearly 97 per cent supported a ban on the use of polythene bags. More than half supported a charge in the form of a fee or a deposit on recyclable items.

“If we want to bring about improvement in environmental quality, then the foundation on which any such effort would rest, would be on the awareness of the public. I hope through this survey we are able to bring about the level of awareness that really lays the foundation for action in the right direction. If we do not, then we would all be taken over by urban blight,” said Dr. R.K. Pachauri, Director General, TERI, in a video message to the gathering.

“TERI’s Environmental Survey 2014 showed that urban respondents felt the government and consumers played a positive role in improving the environment. The survey will be of immense value to policy-makers,” said Dr. Prodipto Ghosh, Distinguished Fellow, TERI.

In the survey of Delhi, urban agglomeration areas from Gurgaon, Noida were also included.

Overall, 43 per cent of the respondents were from low-income localities such as slums, 33 per cent from high-income localities, and 24 per cent from middle-class localities. The male to female ratio of respondents was 70:30, with enumerators stating difficulty in getting women to respond to the questionnaire when men were present in the house, though the survey did not find significant differences between men and women’s responses.

The survey, however, did not find a significant difference in responses on the basis of income. All over the eight cities, while 41 per cent of respondents from middle-class income localities said development should be prioritised over environment, only one fourth of the respondents from low-income (26 per cent) and high-income (24 per cent) localities agreed with this statement.

In Delhi, only 15 per cent respondents felt there was no conflict between the aims of environmental protection and development, and 50 per cent favoured prioritising environment over development.