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Health Costs of Arsenic Contamination of Drinking Water in Assam, India

Author

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  • Jayashree Chowdhury

    (Department of Economics, Handique Girls’ College)

  • Ratul Mahanta

    (Department of Economics, Gauhati University)

  • Hiranya K. Nath

    (Department of Economics and International Business, Sam Houston State University)

Abstract

This paper estimates the health costs of arsenic contamination of drinking water in Assam, India, where 0.72 million people are affected. Applying the Three Stage Least Square (3SLS) procedure to data collected through a primary survey of 355 households in 2013, it estimates three structural equations to determine health costs due to arsenic contamination. The estimates show that the annual health cost of a 1 microgram increase in arsenic concentration is about INR 4 per household. Furthermore, if the level of arsenic concentration is reduced to the safe limit of 50 microgram per liter, the annual welfare gain for a household is estimated to be INR 862 (USD 14). Projecting these figures to the entire arsenic-affected population of Assam, the annual health cost is estimated to be about INR 0.76 million (USD 0.01 million) and the welfare gain from reducing the level of arsenic concentration to the safe limit is estimated to be INR 153 million (USD 2.49 million).The results also indicate that these health costs and welfare gains vary significantly across different levels of arsenic concentration and across districts. Finally, the paper draws policy implications for providing safe drinking water in Assam.

Suggested Citation

  • Jayashree Chowdhury & Ratul Mahanta & Hiranya K. Nath, 2015. "Health Costs of Arsenic Contamination of Drinking Water in Assam, India," Working Papers 1503, Sam Houston State University, Department of Economics and International Business.
    • Handle: RePEc:shs:wpaper:1503
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Barnwal, Prabhat & van Geen, Alexander & von der Goltz, Jan & Singh, Chander Kumar, 2017. "Demand for environmental quality information and household response: Evidence from well-water arsenic testing," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 160-192.
    3. Zimmermann, Klaus F. & Chowdhury, Shyamal & Sutter, Matthias, 2020. "Economic preferences across generations and family clusters: A large-scale experiment," CEPR Discussion Papers 14998, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Debasish Kumar Das & Md. Sariful Islam & Sheikh Hadiujjaman & Champa Bati Dutta & Md. Manjur Morshed, 2019. "Health cost of salinity contamination in drinking water: evidence from Bangladesh," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 21(3), pages 371-397, July.
    5. Elsner, Benjamin & Wozny, Florian, 2018. "The Human Capital Cost of Radiation: Long-Run Evidence from Exposure Outside the Womb," IZA Discussion Papers 11408, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Ricardo Maertens & Alessandro Tarozzi & Kazi Matin Ahmed & Alexander van Geen, 2018. "Demand for Information on Environmental Health Risk, Mode of Delivery, and Behavioral Change: Evidence from Sonargaon, Bangladesh," Working Papers id:12934, eSocialSciences.
    7. Thakur, Barun Kumar & Gupta, Vijaya, 2019. "Valuing health damages due to groundwater arsenic contamination in Bihar, India," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 123-132.

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