Environmental Consequences of Development Interventions in Rural Areas: A Study on Selected Villages

Abstract

The study was conducted to explore the indigenous knowledge and concept of people of various statuses from two floods free and two flood-affected villages on rural environmental consequences of development interventions under Camilla Sadar and Sonargaon Upazilas of Bangladesh. As well as the impact of development interventions in soil and water qualities were assessed. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and survey methods were used to assess the current environmental conditions in the study areas. Agriculture soil tests covered soil texture, pH, organic matter content, percent of total nitrogen, P and K. Nine soil samples from different land types of the study villages were tested for finding out residual effects of insecticides in soils under the groups of Organophosphorus, Organocarbamate and organochlorine after the boro season of 2003. Soil samples were collected from different types of agricultural land under the. study. Water quality both for surface and ground water were considered for the study. Total Dissolved Salt, SS, NH/, PH, P and K tests were carried out for surface water. Arsenic, TH and TDS tests were carried out for ground water assessment in the study villages.-------