Personal, social, and situational factors influencing the consumption of drinking water from arsenic-safe deep tubewells in Bangladesh

Abstract

Naturally occurring arsenic in groundwater in Bangladesh poses a well-known public health threat. The aim of the present study is to investigate fostering and hindering factors of people's use of deep tubewells that provide arsenic-safe drinking water, derived from the Protection Motivation Theory and the Theory of Planned Behavior. Structured personal interviews were conducted with 222 households in rural Sreenagar, Bangladesh. Multiple linear regressions were carried out to identify the most influential personal, social, and situational behavior determinants. Data revealed that social factors explained greater variance in the consumption of drinking water from deep tubewells than did situational and personal factors. In an overall regression, social factors played the biggest role. In particular, social norms seem to strongly influence deep tubewell use. But also self-efficacy and the perceived taste of shallow tubewell water proved influential. Concurrently considering other important factors, such as the most mentioned response cost (i.e., time needed to collect deep tubewell water), we propose a socially viable procedure for installing deep tubewells for the extended consumption of arsenic-safe drinking water by the Bangladeshi population.