Socio-Cultural Aspects of Water Supply and Sanition in KOREA

Abstract

This research is intended to establish the relationships among water sourse, water use and various aspects of environmental as well as personal sanitation in Korean villages, and to identify the major socio-cultural factors, ecological elements and life styles of the residents which influence the observed relationships based on the information collected in five ecologically distinctive communities dispersed throughout the country. These include a metropolitan shanty town, a typical agricultural village and a fishing-cash crop farming island community. Anthropological fieldwork was adopted as the major method of data collection. To obtain quantitative data, a base-line survey was conducted by using structured questionnaires at the early of the research. As a way to determine the safety of drinking water, a series of microbiological examinations of water samples were conducted over a one year period. Water samples were drown from various sources such as the original water sources, portable water in storages, and water from the tap. The research has examined diverse problems of water sanitation and the related environmental problems in Korean communities at three levels, that is environmental contamination by external forces, sanitary problems due to community factors, and problems in individual perceptions and behavior. Finally, policy recommendation has been formulated based on the research findings to upgrade government policies toward environmental improvement and water sanitation on the community level.