SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH ON ARSENIC CONTAMINATED DRINKING WATER IN BANGLADESH

Abstract

In recent years, arsenic contamination of drinking water has become one of serious problem in Bangladesh. Many institutions from foreign countries have been supporting Bangladesh by means of making wells, giving arsenic removal devices and so on. However, many of them are not acceptable by local people because they can not understand how to maintain them or their effectiveness for arsenic. Furthennore some devices are too inconvenien to use in their daily lives. We carried out interviews with local people at two villages in Bangladesh in order to define the relation between arsenic problems and their social environment and to figure out acceptable alternatives to be adapted there. Considering the result, two deterministic functions are set up, one represents local people's satisfaction with drinking water, the other represents local people's unhappiness.