Arsenic scourge may claim several million lives

The Human Rights Watch fears that several million people may die in Bangladesh in the coming years from diseases related to arsenic contamination as there have been negligence and corruption in mitigating the major health challenge.

Depending on exposure to arsenic contamination, one to five million of the 90 million children estimated to be born between 2000 and 2030 will eventually die because of exposure to arsenic in drinking water, says a new study by the global rights watchdog.

“The government acts as though the problem has been mostly solved,” HRW Senior Researcher Richard Pearshouse said at a press conference at the Jatiya Press Club in the capital.

The HRW released the report, “Nepotism and Neglect: The Failing Response to Arsenic in the Drinking Water of Bangladesh's Rural Poor”, yesterday on the eve of the World Health Day today.

Arsenic is found in water mostly from shallow tube-wells in huge swathes of rural Bangladesh, mostly in the central and southern parts. 

If one drinks arsenic-contaminated water, he could suffer from cancers of skin, liver, kidney, bladder and lungs as well as cardiovascular diseases.

According to government data, 20 million people in Bangladesh are exposed to arsenic contamination. Some 65,000 people are now suffering from arsenic-related diseases, and an estimated 43,000 people die from such diseases every year.

The government keeps a national list of patients, identifying them primarily via their skin lesions.

Pearshouse said Bangladesh maintains a standard of 50 micrograms of arsenic per litre of water. However, evidence shows that there is a rise in deaths and illnesses from exposure to arsenic in drinking water containing arsenic between 10 and 50 micrograms a litre.

Scientists in the early '90s drew the world's attention to the problem of naturally occurring arsenic in groundwater.

From 1999 to 2006, the government, donors and NGOs made a concerted effort to mitigate arsenic contamination. They installed a few hundred thousand safe water devices -- mostly deep tube-wells that reach groundwater of better quality.

However, mitigating arsenic remained negligent for about a decade, the HRW said.

“Bangladesh isn't taking basic, obvious steps to get arsenic out of the drinking water of millions of its rural poor,” said Pearshouse, author of the report.

The HWR conducted a survey in five villages across Bangladesh, interviewed 134 people suspected of having arsenic-related diseases and government and NGO officials, and analysed data on around 125,000 government water points installed between 2006 and 2012.

The HRW found some 5,000 of the wells that were supposed to be arsenic-free are actually contaminated by arsenic, Pearshouse said.

He cited “less transparent process of installation and political influence” as the main reasons behind this.

Though deep wells can often reach groundwater of better quality, government programmes don't make it a priority to install new wells in areas where the risk of arsenic contamination is relatively high, he said.

“Moreover, some national and local politicians divert these new wells to their political supporters and allies, instead of the people who need them most,” the HRW said.

This is because the lawmakers get half of the allocation of new tube-wells and the upazila chairmen the rest, it said.

The Unicef, which supported projects to install 20,000 tube-wells between 2006 and 2012, rehabilitated 1,733 arsenic-contaminated tube-wells.

Pearshouse said they found that government doctors currently don't conduct arsenic screening in villages. And those suffering from arsenic-related diseases don't get services or even multivitamin and ointment they used to receive from the government earlier.

He suggested that the government and international donors should immediately take initiatives to mitigate arsenic contamination by installing tube-wells wherever necessary.

They should also support the communities to use appropriate filters to purify water and encourage them to harvest rain and surface water for drinking, he said.

Contacted, an official of the Department of Public Health Engineering said arsenic mitigation programmes are going on, and some 25,000 tube-wells are installed in rural areas a year so that they can access arsenic-free water.

On allegations of nepotism by MPs and upazila chairmen in distributing tube-wells, he said there might be a few such cases.