Skip to main content
  • Book
  • © 2016

Socio-Economic Analysis of Arsenic Contamination of Groundwater in West Bengal

  • Presents a comprehensive documentation to arsenic-contaminated drinking water use, remedies, outcomes and a potential way forward for India
  • Addresses developing countries’ strategies based on technological innovation
  • Offers an important database of countries known for their disastrous impacts on arsenic-contaminated ground water use for drinking water
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Part of the book series: India Studies in Business and Economics (ISBE)

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check for access.

Table of contents (15 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxi
  2. The Plight

    • Abhijit Das, Joyashree Roy, Sayantan Chakrabarti
    Pages 1-4
  3. How Much Is Too Much?

    • Abhijit Das, Joyashree Roy, Sayantan Chakrabarti
    Pages 5-8
  4. Right to Water

    • Abhijit Das, Joyashree Roy, Sayantan Chakrabarti
    Pages 9-11
  5. The Shades of Suffering

    • Abhijit Das, Joyashree Roy, Sayantan Chakrabarti
    Pages 13-17
  6. Are We ‘Learning By Doing’?

    • Abhijit Das, Joyashree Roy, Sayantan Chakrabarti
    Pages 19-20
  7. Who Served the Poison?

    • Abhijit Das, Joyashree Roy, Sayantan Chakrabarti
    Pages 21-25
  8. In Love with the ‘Devil’s Water’

    • Abhijit Das, Joyashree Roy, Sayantan Chakrabarti
    Pages 27-30
  9. The Assassin on the Move

    • Abhijit Das, Joyashree Roy, Sayantan Chakrabarti
    Pages 31-33
  10. Malignant Intentions

    • Abhijit Das, Joyashree Roy, Sayantan Chakrabarti
    Pages 35-38
  11. The Opening of the Pandora’s Box

    • Abhijit Das, Joyashree Roy, Sayantan Chakrabarti
    Pages 39-45
  12. Spilling the Beans

    • Abhijit Das, Joyashree Roy, Sayantan Chakrabarti
    Pages 47-49
  13. Threats to Sustainability

    • Abhijit Das, Joyashree Roy, Sayantan Chakrabarti
    Pages 51-58
  14. The Value of Human Life

    • Abhijit Das, Joyashree Roy, Sayantan Chakrabarti
    Pages 59-62
  15. Pricing the Life?

    • Abhijit Das, Joyashree Roy, Sayantan Chakrabarti
    Pages 63-66
  16. A Catastrophe Sans Border

    • Abhijit Das, Joyashree Roy, Sayantan Chakrabarti
    Pages 67-68
  17. Back Matter

    Pages 69-136

About this book

This book presents a socio-economic analysis of the issues linking technological innovation in providing arsenic-safe drinking water in rural areas. It presents concrete field based experiences of experiments and case studies depicting the plight and sufferings of people due to failed technological deployment strategies over the past two decades in West Bengal, the most arsenic-exposed state in India and also the first to act for remediation of the crisis. One of the greatest challenges in arsenic-exposed zones is to provide sustainable access to reliably arsenic-safe free water. For nearly twenty years the Government of India and national water distribution institutions in collaboration with multi-lateral funding agencies have sought to pump in money, push technology collected through global tenders, and enlist the support of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), but their efforts have yielded little success. This book is the outcome of the authors’ intensive fieldwork, guided by theconceptual framework of the latest literature on environmental economics and consumer behaviour. It presents a framework and estimates based on field level primary data. Secondary official source-based data are also collated from various scattered sources into a valuable, comprehensive collection.  Lastly, the book includes a revealing analysis of factors affecting households’ participation.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Jadavpur, Santospur, Kolkata, India

    Abhijit Das

  • Department of Economics, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India

    Joyashree Roy

  • Jadavpur, Flat No 7, Shri Ram Ashray, Kolkata, India

    Sayantan Chakraborti

About the authors

Dr. Abhijit Das is currently an Assistant Professor in Economics at Vijoygarh Jyotish Ray College in Kolkata, West Bengal (India). He has been researching extensively over past one decade in the various villages of rural West Bengal to understand the social, economic and political issues that drives lack of access to safe drinking water. His field research has been primarily funded by University Grants Commission of Government of India. He has published more than 15 peer reviewed articles.

Dr.  Joyashree Roy, Professor of Economics, coordinates the Global Change Programme and also directs  Ryoichi Sasakawa Young  Leaders Fellowship Fund Project  at the Jadavpur University. She is in the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winning panel –IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). She has been involved in preparation of Stern Review Report, Global Energy Assessment and many other national and global reports.  She has published morethan 80 peer reviewed articles. She is researching in this area for more than two decades.

Sayantan Chakrabarti is a development communication consultant. Few of his notable projects, till date, are ‘LIFE / DEATH’ – a documentary film on the arsenic crisis; ‘Commons’ – a multi-media communication series explaining the idea and necessity of Commons; ‘Dhumil Hota Astitva’ – a film highlighting the impact of environmental pollution on heritage; ‘Mother Anonymous’ – addressing the plight of surrogate mothers; ‘Buy Buy King’ – exploring lack of consumer choice; ‘Harit Lehar’ – explaining the need of composting as a sustainable method of waste management. He also assisted Dr. Rohit Jigyasu for the paper ‘Appropriate technology for post-disaster reconstruction’ in the book ‘Rebuilding after disasters from emergency to sustainability’, published by Taylor and Francis in 2009.

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access