ABSTRACT
M. Anwar Hossain Department of Farm Structure, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering & Technology, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh
M. Amirul Islam Department of Agricultural Statistics, Faculty of Agricultural Economics & Rural Sociology, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh
M.O. Gani & M.A. Karim Graduate Student, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering & Technology, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh
ABSTRACT: Recently arsenic contamination in tubewell water is of a growing concern among the policy makers and researchers. This study has been devoted to the investigation of the existing arsenic contamination level in tubewell water and as well as the association among different characteristics of tubewells of two-selected regions of Bangladesh. The data were collected from a highly arsenic contaminated area at Chuddyagram Upazila in Comilla district and from a low arsenic contaminated area at Modhupur Upazila in Tangail district. More than two third of the tubewells of that region are private and 53.3% of the tubewells have been installed in the last ten years. 27.1% of the tubewells were found to be used by 11-20 persons regularly. Around 35.9% of the tubewells were completely unaffected by arsenic. About 68.8% of the tubewells have been installed above 30 m depth level. Among the tubewells under study 66.3% were found to be marked as safe. Among the users of the tubewells, 25.7% were found to be under risk of arsenic pollution by tubewell water. Most of the government tubewells (83.8%) are safe, whereas 58% of the private tubewells are arsenic free. Multiple linear regression analysis suggested that both the depth and age of installation of tubewells have significant negative impact on the level of arsenic. Number of users was found to be significantly influenced by depth and age of installation in positive direction and by arsenic contamination level in negative direction. Linear logistic regression has been used to identify the factors that significantly affect the status of a tubewells to be identified as arsenic contaminated and only depth level of tubewells was found to have significant negative effect on the dependent variable. Finally, on the basis of the findings a set of recommendations have been suggested in this article, which will help the policy makers to take future initiatives to overcome the problem.
