An Investigation On Environmental Consciousness Of Rural Residents Living Along The Beijiang River

Objective To understand the general situation of rural residents living along the Bijiang River and awareness of pollution-related environmental knowledge about Bijiang River, the attitudes of pollution control and the occurrence of environmental behavior among the rural residents, investigate the influencing factors, to provide valuable information for the relevant departments to formulate scientific and rational watershed pollution control measures, and establish the basis for further development of environmental education to enhance the participation of residents living along the Bijiang River.Methods By using some qualitative methods such as interview method, observation method and the method of referring literature and documents to understand the basic situation of the investigation sites and improve the questionnaire. Non-random sampling was used to sample from the rural residents living along the Bijiang River. The questionnaire developed by ourselves was used to investigate the targeting population by using epidemiological cross-sectional study method.Results (1) 52.5% male and 47.5% female among the residents primarily is Bai and married people, Most are in middle school and below education, which accounted for 14.1% illiterate, living life in 21 years and above accounted for 88.0%,family income below 10,000 yuan accounted for 69.9%, main income is planning,91.0% rice and 57.5% for growing vegetables, and use the Bijiang River as irrigation water in varying degrees.(2) The farmers had drinking water from other sources and 97.1% of the farmers said pollution affected their irrigation water.76.0% of farmers had grain products decreasing and 24.2% had changed water-field into dry-field.94.5% thought the pollution may affect health,81.1% worried about pollution on the health of future generations.(3) 99.2% of farmers regarded source of pollution as mine exploitation, more and more people from the upstream to the midstream and the downstream thought that rubbish, feces and sewage were also the sources of pollution (P＜0.05), but the dangers of chemical fertilizers pesticides lack of knowledge. The environmental knowledge's scores of farmers living in the upstream, the midstream and the downstream were 4.53±2.39,4.38±2.30,5.56±2.18 respectively and the differences were significant (P＜0.05). From the upstream to the midstream and the downstream, the numbers of farmers chucking rubbish into the river gradually increased (P＜0.05). The environmental behavior's scores of farmers living in the upstream, the midstream and the downstream were 1.94±0.83,1.48±0.87,1.29±0.90 respectively and the differences were significant (P＜0.05), the Multiple regression analyses showed that the greatest impact factors on environmental knowledge and environmental behavior was the river section. Residents believe that the main reason for lead-zinc mining, followed by the reasons for the government, they showed very strong "government dependency" on river pollution control and protection. Residents informed of relevant information channel blocked.15.5% of farmers got information about environmental protection through propaganda,76.3% did not know the information about the protection of information,86.5% said never had the control and protection of information, and only 13.8% knew that the river pollution will be treated.Conclusion Since the lead-zinc mining, Bijiang has been polluted severely by heavy metal, which caused varying degrees of influence on villagers'water and agricultural production. However, in the course of the investigation also found that except the heavy metal pollution, coastal production and waste water pollution on the Bijiang river can not be ignored. The survey area is severely contaminated areas, watershed, and is located in the poor mountainous areas, villagers were less educated, the illiterate people accounted for 14.1%, so in the areas related to environmental awareness Bijiang River pollution investigation for river management and conservation efforts have a positive and practical significance. The survey found that the villagers think that the Bijiang River has been polluted mainly caused lead-zinc mining, and although the villagers have a certain degree of understanding about some other pollution such as solid waste, sewage, feces on the Bijiang River, but in daily production and life, the villagers still the refuse, sewage, etc. into Bijiang River, in the control and protection Bijiang River attitude, most villagers in the "exposure to outside world". Therefore, we should conduct Bijiang environmental education vigorously on rural residents along the Bijiang River in order to fully mobilize their participation in river management and protection Bijiang enthusiasm.