Late Breaking - Individual Paper
1. Uneven Geographies, Ecologies, Technologies and Human Futures
This study clarifies the impact and challenges of providing technologies to local communities, focusing on the case of the southwest coastal region of Bangladesh. This study uses data collected through field surveys conducted in a settlement in Shayamnagar Upazila, Satkhira District since 2017. Despite efforts by development agencies to distribute rainwater harvesting tanks in the study area, not all households can access them, leading to insufficient drinking water storage and supply. Consequently, villagers use pond water purification systems called pond sand filters (PSFs) installed by development agencies as a source of drinking water when the harvested rainwater is depleted. However, PSFs are predominantly installed in densely populated, easily accessible areas, neglecting remote areas. Moreover, a water quality survey revealed that PSF water is unsafe to drink due to saline and organic matter contamination. In addition, due to poor maintenance by villages, the PSFs tend to become inoperable over time. Therefore, development agencies have recently shifted from PSFs to reverse osmosis membrane plants for groundwater filtration. Although villagers have adopted to use these facilities, interviews with operators highlight issues such as the discharge of concentrated water, which is contaminated with saline and impurities, without treatment. This may lead to environmental impacts such as soil and groundwater salinisation. While villagers may adapt their drinking water sources, the introduced technologies have failed to provide a fundamental solution to the drinking water problem. Moreover, they may introduce new challenges.
Shota Yamada
Rikkyo Univesity, Japan