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Revisiting the Village Where Arsenic Contamination of Underground Water Was First Discovered in Bangladesh: Twenty-five Years Later

Maiko Sakamoto
Department of International Studies, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Chiba 2778563, Japan

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

A survey was conducted in an As-affected village of Bangladesh—the first discovery of As contamination in the country—to assess the current situation and how implementation activities have worked to mitigate the problem. The As testing showed that the levels were less than the Bangladesh standard (50 µg/L) in all shallow tube-wells throughout the village. The questionnaire survey was conducted in the village as well as a neighboring As-affected village for comparison. The results revealed that there was a significant number of people using shallow tube wells in both villages despite knowing that these wells could be contaminated with As and that safe water was available through a pipeline water supply. About 70% of responding households possessed their own water sources, mostly shallow tube-wells, and owners were less likely to choose tap water for drinking purposes than nonowners. In the village where As contamination was first reported, those individuals with a higher level of education and strong ties with neighbors were more likely to use shallow tube-well water for drinking purposes rather than tap water. This study suggests several measures to mobilize people to get safe water, namely providing subsides to install private taps, supplying public taps, and marketing and distributing handy water quality tests for households.

Keywords: Arsenic contamination, Underground water, Risk perception, Risk communication, Questionnaire survey, Community-level analysis, Logistic regression, Social capital, Mitigation policy

Location: In Bangladesh

Start Date: 00-00-2017

End Date: 00-00-2018

Program Area: Risk Management in Agriculture

Commodity: Groundwater, Arsenic, Water Arsenic

Objectives:

To assess the current situation of Arsenic Contamination of Underground Water in Bangladesh and how implementation activities to mitigate the problem

Methodology:

The preliminary survey was conducted in July 2017 to understand local situations and select a comparison site. The questionnaire survey was conducted in February 2018. Questions were asked to the wives of the householders. The women were selected as respondents because they were considered responsible for choosing the drinking water source for their family’s use. The survey included questions about the family profile, occupations, financial status, water source options, and perceptions of risk regarding As in the local water supply. The survey did not intend an intervention, so the ethical approval was not obtained in advance. The verbal informed consent was obtained due to the high rate of illiteracy. Logistic regression analysis was applied to the collected data to investigate villagers’ perceptions and behaviors related to the As risk and selection of drinking water source. R version 3.3.1 with the function “glm” was used for logistic regression, where the error structure assumed was “binominal distribution” and the link function was set as “logit” (link = logit). The As tests were conducted for all the tube-wells in the study site with the HACH EZ Arsenic Kit. For confirmation of the results, 10 randomly selected samples from the study site and samples from 17 tube-wells installed in the adjacent village and previously tested by Islam et al. were sent to the DPHE laboratory for more accurate testing. An effort was made to identify the 18 tube-wells tested in the previous study based on the location information provided in the published paper. Of these, 13 were identified, 4 were not located, and 1 had been demolished. Therefore, the 13 identified tube-wells that had been tested in the previous study and 4 additional tube-wells situated near the previously tested (but unlocated) tube-wells were tested in the DPHE laboratory. Water samples for the lab test were stored in polypropylene bottles and preserved by acidifying with concentrated hydrochloric acid maintaining pH level < 2. The As concentration was analyzed by Hydride Vapor Generating (HVG) Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (SpectrAA-220, Varian). The As field test was conducted concurrently with the questionnaire survey in February 2018, and the DPHE lab tests were conducted in March 2018 for the 10 samples from the study site and in April 2018 for the 17 samples from the previously studied village.

Source of Information: Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18, 259.

Article Link (Online Journal): https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18010259; https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph

Funding Source:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

The study explored how the implementation actions have worked to mitigate the problem by looking at the situation of the village where the As was first reported in Bangladesh 25 years ago. A questionnaire survey and As tests on tube-well water were conducted in the village and in another neighboring village. The As levels in the tube-wells were found decreased in the study site. It is beyond the scope of this paper to examine the reason for this, but the case reported here seems worth investigating further, and hydrogeologic researchers are expected to extend the study. As for the villagers’ risk perception and behaviors, despite the enormous effort of the intervening bodies and the availability of safe water through pipelines in the two villages studied, information did not significantly induce the risk mitigation behaviors and a significant number of people continued to use shallow tube-wells. Furthermore, fewer respondents from the study site had sufficient knowledge about As compared to respondents from the comparison site, and they were more likely to use the nonfiltered shallow tube-wells although there have been many interventions in the study site since As contamination of the water was first reported 25 years ago. The possible reasoning for this tendency is that people are more likely to trust concerted evidence than general knowledge even though the evidence was provided occasionally. As such, the uncertainty about groundwater conditions is not well recognized by the general population. Therefore, practitioners should be careful when they share the As testing results with local people. Once they are told that their tube-wells are safe, they might believe the information for a long time. The As testing provides only tentative information about groundwater conditions. As economic conditions improve, people want to have their own water source. In most of the cases, shallow tube-wells are chosen and installed because they are economically viable and convenient, but they are not frequently monitored. Under such circumstances, considering people’s risk behavioral tendencies revealed through the analyses, certain measures are necessary to provide people with safe water. Providing subsides to install private taps, supplying public taps, and marketing and distributing handy water quality tests for households are suggested as viable options to mobilize people to get safe water. These measures will be more effective when they are combined with continuous enlightenment activities that further include the information on the nature of underground water.

Knowledge Management: Journal