The use of alternative safe water options
to mitigate the arsenic problem in Bangladesh: a community perspective
Md. Jakariya. M.Sc. Thesis,
Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Aug 2000
CHAPTER 8. FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION
A number of focus group discussions were held in each of the
villages with different types of villagers. The following is a brief description
of these discussions.
8.1 Focus group discussion at Vhagolpur Village of Sonargaon Upazilla
Vhagolpur is situated in Sonargaon upazilla, which is
close to the Dhaka-Chittagong highway. It is very close (about half an hour by
car) to Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. Arsenic in the water was first
detected in this village by BRAC in late 1999 and they tested each and every tube well
for arsenic contamination. According to BRAC’s results all but one of
the tube wells were arsenic-contaminated at levels that were higher than the
acceptable limit i.e. more than 0.05 mg/l, and the average depth of the tube wells
was 75 feet. The majority of the villagers are businessmen. As regards
culture, the people of this village were found to be different from typical
villages of rural Bangladesh. From BRAC’s long experience in this village it
was observed that it was difficult to motivate people to accept innovations that
originated outside of their community. Although arsenic in tube well water was
first detected in this village more than a year before, villagers still
remembered all the messages about arsenic that had been provided them by BRAC at
the time of testing. But at the same time the villagers mentioned that although
they were concerned about the provided alternative safe water options and at the
same time scared about the hazard of arsenic poisoning, the majority of them
were still drinking from the arsenic-contaminated tube wells. The present study
identifies the following reasons for these perceptions:
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Almost all the respondents of Vhagolpur mentioned that
since there were no arsenic patients in the village they were not taking this
problem seriously. At the same time, its
long incubation period made villagers careless about the disease. Many of them
anticipated that better options and medication for the disease would be
invented by the time symptoms show up. They also mentioned they have been
drinking water from the same sources without any difficulties and they thought
that this would hold true for the future as well. The irregular pattern of
attack of the disease even within the same families also made villagers
careless regarding further spread of the disease. At the same time many of the
villagers even mentioned that this might be a ploy by the pipe-manufacturing
companies to sell more pipes to them.
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Many of the villagers expressed different concerns about
the arsenic problem. They mentioned that in the near future there might be a
problem i.e. they might get affected with arsenicosis. In principle
they would welcome some solution to the problem; in practice, however, the
options provided by BRAC were not very popular with the villagers and they
expressed their wish for a better solution, preferably the further sinking of
the existing tube wells.
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Proximity to urban centers and frequent movement to the
capital and other major business towns made people feel superior and that is
why they did not want to accept any new idea or information that was coming
from outside of the village.
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Many people from this village work outside of Bangladesh in
order to earn more money; others, the majority in fact, are businessmen -
these two characteristics in particular make the village more affluent in
comparison to the other study village. On average the economic condition of
the villagers was better and therefore their nutritional status was also
comparatively higher than the other village. For this reason (better
nutrition), and as the villagers themselves mentioned, they are less
vulnerable to this disease.
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Although the majority of the respondents of this village
considered arsenic to be a problem in the near future yet the percentage of
people still drinking arsenic-contaminated tube well water was higher in this
village. Villagers also mentioned that the information provided both by
government and NGOs was not enough and according to them door-to-door
campaigns as well as a more visual presentation of the consequences of the
disease would be more realistic to sensitize people.
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Villagers expect more NGO involvement to solve the problem
but they were found willing to pay for better and improved options. Tube well masons of this village provided a different sort of information: they were
advocating further sinking of tube wells pipes to get arsenic free water. The
masons told the villagers that it was possible to get arsenic free water from
about 300 feet depth. The villagers initially accepted this opinion,
especially when they observed a couple of success cases; but in most other
cases the masons could not get arsenic-free water from the same depth and this
made villagers frustrated and caused them to question the viability of
investing more money in such an uncertain measure. Villagers were eager to
know both from the NGO workers and also from scientists, the depth at which
arsenic-free water could be found from the same source, which they were
familiar with. However, there is no such evidence available to the scientists
that concerns which level of the groundwater would be arsenic free and for how
long.
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Villagers also mentioned that they have little faith in the
technical viability of treating surface water and in the quality of the
treated water from the provided options. Many of them also mentioned that they
do not have confidence in the message provided by the local NGO project staff.
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Community spirit was not strong among residents of this
village. Although this was a typical village in terms of rural village
definition of Bangladesh, but the characteristics of the people of this
village were different from those of other villages. For example, the tendency
to communicate with neighbors and community cohesion was not present in this
village. Most of the villagers are businessmen and they tend hardly to
communicate with other members of the community. For example, many of the
respondents mentioned that they do not like to collect water from another
person’s house; rather they consider it a measure of prestige not to do so.
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The villagers mentioned that community-based options to
alleviate arsenic problem would not be feasible for them; they would prefer
home-based arsenic free treatment units.
The Three-Pitcher system, for instance, seems to be popular with many of the
villagers.
8.2 Focus group discussion at Kamarpara Village of Jhikargacha
Upazilla
Arsenic was first detected in this village by the Department
of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) in 1993 through sporadic sampling taken
while developing a countrywide arsenic concentration pattern in tube well water.
The total number of households in this village was about 210 and the number of
arsenicosis patients identified was 40.
About 91% of the tube well water of this village were
contaminated with arsenic. Two out of the nine arsenic free tube wells of this
village were deep tube wells and were installed by government i.e. by DPHE.
It was a combined decision by DPHE, UNICEF and the implementing NGO (BRAC) that
deep tube well would not be included as a safe water option for this action
research project because it was not yet scientifically-proven whether this
option would be arsenic free or not in the long run. The results of the focus
group discussion are presented below:
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Although in the beginning all the provided alternative safe
water options were widely accepted by the community, after about a month or so
the villagers started to use these options hesitatingly - very few people in
fact were found currently using them. It has been observed that, except for a
few people, villagers who were still using these alternative safe water
options were using them for cooking and washing purposes.
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In Kamarpara, arsenicosis has broken out only in the two paras
(a small cluster of settlements within a village; a village may have
several paras) where the concentration of arsenic in tube well water is
comparatively high (BRAC survey 1999) and people generally have very low
incomes. People from other areas of the village were alarmed to see these
patients but gradually started to believe that their area would not be
affected since the disease has not spread during the last 4 to 5 years. At the
same time, there is a firm belief among the villagers that there will be no
problem in the near future - this is because they have been drinking water
from the present sources for generations without any observable effects.
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Except for a very few families living close to these wells,
none of the villagers collect water regularly from deep and green tube wells.
Almost all the villagers mentioned they do not have enough manpower to collect
water from distant places. Women and children are reluctant to fetch water
over long distances because of the time and labor involved and also because
of bad road conditions particularly during the rainy season. Some of them
mentioned that they sometimes fetch water from red tube wells without informing
anyone at home.
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There is a traditional practice in this area that men never
collect drinking water. They mentioned that they usually do not collect
drinking water. Because of religious perceptions and cultural traditions,
rural women avoid any sort of contact, including visual contact, with unknown
persons and non-relatives - this discourages men from fetching water from
places where women usually do, for example deep tube wells in this case.
Villagers also mentioned that if some men do fetch water, other men
taunt them for ‘obeying the wife’s command’ or for doing ‘a woman’s
work’. Therefore, men usually do not participate in collecting water from
common places, unless there is no other option.
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A number of social problems were found to occur at the
initial stage when arsenicosis was first detected in the village: for example,
the arsenic-affected patients were kept aside, their marriages tended to
founder, etc. These problems no longer existed when they learnt that the
disease was neither contagious nor hereditary.
Initially all the provided alternative safe water options
were widely accepted by the community, for the following reasons:
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People were frightened of the possibility of being affected
by arsenicosis;
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People thought that the alternative safe water options
would be something different and interesting so they used these options
continuously for at least for couple of weeks;
-
A
fresh motivational programme and the presence of
arsenic-affected patients particularly in Kamarpara, helped people avoid
drinking arsenic-contaminated water;
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Continuous broadcasts on national radio and television
explaining the potential effects of this disease also helped people to accept
alternative safe water options or to avoid drinking arsenic-contaminated
water.
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