2002 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
A study on the relationships between production, consumption, and behavior in rural villages affected by arsenic contamination in Bangladesh
| Project/Area Number |
13610360
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
文化人類学(含民族学・民俗学)
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| Research Institution | Kyshu Institute of Design |
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Principal Investigator |
TANI Masakazu Kyushu Institute of Design, Assoc. Professor, 芸術工学部, 助教授 (60281549)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
KOBAYASHI Masashi Horiku-Gakuin Junior College, Professor, 教授 (50225538)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2001 – 2002
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| Keywords | Bangladesh / groundwater arsenic contamination / agricultural productivity / cultural anthropology / alternative water sources / social barriers |
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| Research Abstract |
This study has conducted surveys and analyses on an agricultural census and social barriers related to alternative safe water sources.
The agricultural census was conducted in a rural village seriously contaminated by arsenic. The data of the agricultural census in this study was collected for the surplus productivity as a whole village, rather than household basis. In this analysis, a village was treated as a cultural-ecological system, arsenic contamination problem was viewed as an environmental stress, and the analysis on the balance of production and consumption in the ecosystem appraised the adaptive productivity of the village. The analysis indicates that the village as an ecosystem has surplus productivity, and that the surplus resources can be diverted to deal with the environmental stress.
As for the use of alternative safe water sources, we surveyed the actual uses of alternative water sources, such as dugwells and deep tubewells. The analysis examines the effects and problems related to the water sources of collective use. The analysis concludes that collective water sources are cost-effective because a few water sources can supply water needs for a settlement. However, because only females perform water fetching, the effectivity of a water source is affected not only by physical distance, but by the social restriction of female behavior. Moreover, since a collective water source tends to be sited in "center," the location may not be very convenient for socially disadvantaged households in peripheral areas. In another case, some of those households located near a water source may not be able to and willing to use the source because of the relationships between social groups. For these reasons, it is necessary to incorporate invisible socio-cultural factors in the siting of an alternative water source, and to develop household-base safe water sources for socially disadvantaged households, not being able to use a collective sources for varied reasons.
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Research Products
(4 results)
