Two years after the Bangladesh Arsenic Mitigation and Water
Supply Project (BAMWSP) tested and labeled private tubewells for
arsenic concentration (painted green if at or below the country
standard of 50 ug/l or red if above), surveys of some 4,000
wells show that less than one-third of unsafe well owners in a
100-km2 area of Araihazar have switched to an alternate well. In
contrast, previous surveys of some 6,000 wells show that two-
thirds of unsafe well owners had switched following testing and
labeling by BAMWSP and Columbia University. This 25-km2 area
also received 50 low arsenic community wells prior to surveys
and has been studied and surveyed by Columbia University earth,
health, and social scientists since 2000. As the primary
difference between mitigation efforts in these two socially and
geographically similar locations, additional academic presence
(with safe well installations and regular reminders of arsenic
hazards) seems to have positively influenced switching behavior.
Yet when switching beha