# Perceptions on Drinking Water and Wastewater in a Local Area in Western Romania
## 3 Results and Discussion
### Water Utilization  
In terms of household water use, it is mainly used for washing inside, e.g., clothes (m = 5.30), cooking (m = 4.89), washing outside, e.g., car, yard (m = 4.13), garden watering (m = 3.92), other uses (m = 3.84), and finally drinking (m = 3.47) (Figure 1). It has to be pointed out that a significant difference between the answers of male and female respondents was noticed in the case of the use of water for indoor activities, where the women's answers were 17.6% higher than those of men, a fact that can be attributed to the women's household chores.  
Observing the data from Figure 1, the principal directions for water utilization are drinking and cooking. Such a situation imposes specific qualitative standards. Therefore, in the region included in the present research, the tap water system extension will bring incommensurable consumer benefits, given that different chemical or microbial contaminants could be found in traditional sources, such as wells. A recent research study underlines the relevance of various actions undertaken by people in their own homes to ensure water safety [29]. So, access to a centralized framework could be a viable alternative.  
A quantitative interpretation was conducted for the most representative number of respondents, Pecica. Differences in water use frequency were statistically significant, with  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c} \hline \hline
**Residence** & **Respondents No.** & **Percentage Reported to the Total Selection [\%]** \\ \hline Pecica & 108 & 92.3 \\ Turnu & 66 & 91.7 \\ Sederhat & 3 & 100 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} The very small group of respondents in Sederhat was not taken into account.  
\end{table}
Table 2: The influence of residence in the responses regarding the importance of water quality.  
Figure 1: Water use purposes.  
Chi-square coefficients ranging from 13.87 to 212.53 at thresholds less than 0.05 (Table 3). Therefore, it can be stated that the results are significant for the population of Pecica.  
As mentioned above, daily water intake is essential. Respondents were asked about the amount of water consumed regularly. About half of them drink between 1 and 2 L (Figure 2). According to the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the total recommended amount of fluid intake is 3.7 L for men and 2.7 L for women [30]. At the same time, the European Food and Safety Authority indicates a consumption of 2.0 L/day for females and 2.5 L/day for males [31]. Correlating the respondents' answers with the recommendations of these institutions, we can say that a small percentage of them do not have an optimum level of daily water intake.  
It can also be seen from Figure 2 that 6% of people could not specify the total amount of daily ingested fluids. Most respondents fell below the limits recommended by nutritionists because they referred only to the consumed water, not to all liquids. As [PERSON] et al. mentioned in their study, humans can achieve the average water balance between resources and consumption for a specific time interval by adapting particular mechanisms to the involved activity [32].  
The survey questions were designed on the premise that daily water intake is not influenced by gender or region. The initial hypothesis was confirmed using the independent \(t\)-test coefficients at thresholds greater than 0.05 (Table 4). Therefore, water consumption is not significantly different between men and women in Pecica and Turnu.