Influence of mass-awareness campaign on community behavior pattern changes for safe drinking water availability in a groundwater arsenic-affected area of South Asia

Environmental pollution of drinking water and it's mitigation policies spose one of the most significant global sustainability challenges. The remediation of pollutants from drinking water depends on technological efficacy, whereas its implementation on the target population requires social acceptance besides economic resources. In this context, mass awareness of the benefits of community safe water supply scheme and people's willingness to use the treated water may improvise the effective implementation of the project. The present research demonstrated the effectiveness of a field-scale mass awareness experiment on the management of arsenic (As) pollution through the implementation of piped community water supply project, in areas with profuse As contaminated tubewell-based water use. Extensive baseline and end-line surveys were conducted to assess the public awareness of the As issues, identification of the captive population, which delineates the impact of the campaign program and the associated change in behavior of the studied population. Lorenz curve was employed to estimate the awareness of arsenic contamination in different population clusters and it was observed that a cumulative awareness share of 96.9% was achieved in 97.5% of households. Hotspot analysis was conducted to identify the spatial distribution of As incidences and unresponsive captive population to awareness program. A neural network-based prediction model was developed, integrating the baseline and end-line survey data to assess the impact of the awareness program on public behavioral change on shifting to community piped water supply sources from contaminated groundwater. The high value of R-2 (0.986) and F statistics (3721.6) signify the effective application of the model

Automated summary

Environmental pollution of drinking water and its mitigation policies are significant global sustainability challenges. Mass awareness experiments and implementation of water supply projects can effectively manage arsenic pollution in drinking water and change people's behavior. Hotspot analysis and prediction models help assess the impact of awareness programs on public behavior.