MAPPING VULNERABILITY TO GROUNDWATER ARSENIC: TOWARDS DEVELOPING A SOCIO-ECONOMIC MODEL OF ARSENIC MITIGATION IN SOUTH ASIA

Groundwater arsenic contamination affects millions of people in South Asia. In this paper, we focus on the Eastern India, large areas of which have arsenic concentrations far exceeding the upper limits of acceptable level of arsenic in drinking water. We propose a vulnerability framework to identify for mitigation populations that are at the highest risk of suffering adverse impacts from exposure to arsenic. Drawing on existing social science research, we identify a host of socioeconomic and demographic variables, in addition to arsenic concentration in groundwater, that compound community’s vulnerability to the adverse effects of arsenic. The result is a “Composite Vulnerability Index,” which consists of biophysical, socioeconomic, and demographic factors that collectively determine a community’s overall vulnerability to arsenic. Additionally, using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), we represent the composite vulnerability index visually through a set of Composite Vulnerability Maps (CVM), which highlight the interaction between different community characteristics to generate unique community vulnerability profiles. The proposed CVM would help identify the most vulnerable areas even at household level; identify the extremely vulnerable areas where arsenic mitigation is the urgent need; and the areas with highest adaptive capacity where probability of success of arsenic mitigation policy would be the greatest. In sum this paper outlines a systematic approach to understanding vulnerability to groundwater arsenic, as a social and natural construct, which can be applied to different geographic areas and to improving decision–making and planning pertaining to diverse environmental problems.