ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: The normal focal point with the introduction of ‘new’ technologies is the technique itself despite numerous experiences that show that most problems evolve around its implementation process. This paper uses the arsenic contaminated drinking water supply in rural Bangladesh to illustrate our analysis of this discrepancy and presents recommendations and fundamental principles for promising approaches. To value these it is important to look at a few basic perceptions of current paradigm first. Today’s paradigm supports the ideas of growth, investments in capital and technology transfer fuelled by a one-sided western view on development. Apart from the consequences of operating within this paradigm, the implementation of solutions in the case of the arsenic issue is further hampered by the numerous problematic elements such as: lack of awareness, general water scarcity, doubts about the causes of the contamination and other research uncertainties, etc. This paper will however not focus on these elements separately but three causal relations between them: (1) Physical oriented perspective: The current situation of the drinking water supplies reveals a discrepancy between the scarce availability of safe drinking water and the needs of the rural community; (2) Knowledge oriented perspective: The health hazards issue shows the relation between research experience and their effects on local coping mechanisms; (3) Institutional oriented perspective: The problem of lacking proper drinking water supply institutions relates the institutional bottlenecks with the effects on local arrangements. Starting from these different perspectives this paper tries to give a holistic basis from where recommendations and approaches can be formulated. As the technological solutions are not considered to be the main bottlenecks today, the recommended approaches particularly focus on the social and institutional level of implementation in an interdisciplinary way.
