Evolution of households’ responses to the groundwater arsenic crisis in Bangladesh: information on environmental health risks can have increasing behavioral impact over time
A national campaign of well testing through 2003 enabled households in rural Bangladesh to switch, at least for drinking water, from high-arsenic wells to neighboring lower arsenic wells. We study the well-switching dynamics over time by re-interviewing, in 2008, a randomly selected subset of househ...
| Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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| Formato: | Journal Article |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
Cambridge University Press
2014
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/58375 |
| _version_ | 1855514132687618048 |
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| author | Balasubramanya, Soumya Pfaff, A. Bennear, L. Tarozzi, A. Ahmed, K.M. Schoenfeld, A. Geen, A. van |
| author_browse | Ahmed, K.M. Balasubramanya, Soumya Bennear, L. Geen, A. van Pfaff, A. Schoenfeld, A. Tarozzi, A. |
| author_facet | Balasubramanya, Soumya Pfaff, A. Bennear, L. Tarozzi, A. Ahmed, K.M. Schoenfeld, A. Geen, A. van |
| author_sort | Balasubramanya, Soumya |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | A national campaign of well testing through 2003 enabled households in rural Bangladesh to switch, at least for drinking water, from high-arsenic wells to neighboring lower arsenic wells. We study the well-switching dynamics over time by re-interviewing, in 2008, a randomly selected subset of households in the Araihazar region who had been interviewed in 2005. Contrary to concerns that the impact of arsenic information on switching behavior would erode over time, we find that not only was 2003–2005 switching highly persistent but also new switching by 2008 doubled the share of households at unsafe wells who had switched. The passage of time also had a cost: 22 per cent of households did not recall test results by 2008. The loss of arsenic knowledge led to staying at unsafe wells and switching from safe wells. Our results support ongoing well testing for arsenic to reinforce this beneficial information. |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | CGSpace58375 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publishDateRange | 2014 |
| publishDateSort | 2014 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| publisherStr | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace583752025-06-17T08:23:12Z Evolution of households’ responses to the groundwater arsenic crisis in Bangladesh: information on environmental health risks can have increasing behavioral impact over time Balasubramanya, Soumya Pfaff, A. Bennear, L. Tarozzi, A. Ahmed, K.M. Schoenfeld, A. Geen, A. van arsenic groundwater environmental health health hazards households wells drinking water development A national campaign of well testing through 2003 enabled households in rural Bangladesh to switch, at least for drinking water, from high-arsenic wells to neighboring lower arsenic wells. We study the well-switching dynamics over time by re-interviewing, in 2008, a randomly selected subset of households in the Araihazar region who had been interviewed in 2005. Contrary to concerns that the impact of arsenic information on switching behavior would erode over time, we find that not only was 2003–2005 switching highly persistent but also new switching by 2008 doubled the share of households at unsafe wells who had switched. The passage of time also had a cost: 22 per cent of households did not recall test results by 2008. The loss of arsenic knowledge led to staying at unsafe wells and switching from safe wells. Our results support ongoing well testing for arsenic to reinforce this beneficial information. 2014-10 2015-03-17T14:39:53Z 2015-03-17T14:39:53Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/58375 en Limited Access Cambridge University Press Balasubramanya, Soumya; Pfaff, A.; Bennear, L.; Tarozzi, A.; Ahmed, K. M.; Schoenfeld, A.; Van Geen, A. 2014. Evolution of households’ responses to the groundwater arsenic crisis in Bangladesh: information on environmental health risks can have increasing behavioral impact over time. Environment and Development Economics, 19:631-647. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355770X13000612 |
| spellingShingle | arsenic groundwater environmental health health hazards households wells drinking water development Balasubramanya, Soumya Pfaff, A. Bennear, L. Tarozzi, A. Ahmed, K.M. Schoenfeld, A. Geen, A. van Evolution of households’ responses to the groundwater arsenic crisis in Bangladesh: information on environmental health risks can have increasing behavioral impact over time |
| title | Evolution of households’ responses to the groundwater arsenic crisis in Bangladesh: information on environmental health risks can have increasing behavioral impact over time |
| title_full | Evolution of households’ responses to the groundwater arsenic crisis in Bangladesh: information on environmental health risks can have increasing behavioral impact over time |
| title_fullStr | Evolution of households’ responses to the groundwater arsenic crisis in Bangladesh: information on environmental health risks can have increasing behavioral impact over time |
| title_full_unstemmed | Evolution of households’ responses to the groundwater arsenic crisis in Bangladesh: information on environmental health risks can have increasing behavioral impact over time |
| title_short | Evolution of households’ responses to the groundwater arsenic crisis in Bangladesh: information on environmental health risks can have increasing behavioral impact over time |
| title_sort | evolution of households responses to the groundwater arsenic crisis in bangladesh information on environmental health risks can have increasing behavioral impact over time |
| topic | arsenic groundwater environmental health health hazards households wells drinking water development |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/58375 |
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