The Effects of Pandemic on Urban Water Consumption in Ankara

Abstract

Dependence on urban water consumption has increased with the coronavirus pandemic, where the need for clean potable water resources is felt most. Examining the change in water use during the pandemic period shows the importance of ensuring the sustainability of urban water use supply. The aim of the study is to determine whether there is an increase in urban water consumption in Ankara with the pandemic. The material of the study consists of monthly water consumption data of Ankara province between 2010-2021. Two periods and totally 40 months’ water consumption data were used as material before the pandemic (July 2018-February 2020) and after the pandemic (March 2020-October 2021). The change in water consumption was analyzed using the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test and the parametric Augmented Dickey-Fuller test. As a result, the highest increase in household water consumption was in June 2020 with 94.04% compared to 2019, and the highest decrease was in June 2021 with 42.54% compared to 2020. The highest decrease in business water consumption occurred in May 2020 with 74.31% compared to 2019, and the highest increase occurred in May 2021 with 63.76% compared to 2020. There was no significant change in total water consumption for the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic periods. According to the Mann-Whitney U test, the difference in water consumption in household and business was statistically significant (P= 0.015 and P= 0.041) according to the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic 20-month periods, and according to the median values, there was an increasing trend in water consumption from pre-pandemic to post-pandemic in household, a decreasing trend was observed in business.