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| by Pia Vierro Bennendsen, |
Aug 14, 2002 |
Thirty years ago, the Bangladeshi government started to pump clean groundwater in order to maintain public health. Before that, surface water from the rivers was the country’s lone water source. Due to the intense pumping, groundwater resources have now been heavily reduced and a natural pocket of arsenic has burst and blended into the drinking water.
The problem is massive. Out of 126 million people in Bangladesh, 77 million are potentially poisoned by arsenic everyday. The problem is hard to solve because of the incredible number of people involved. The government has tried to implement a labeling system to prevent people from drinking the polluted water. Arsenocosic people are banned from villages and beaten to death, because the villagers think that these ill people are lepers. The symptoms are very visible. Arsenocosis causes lesions on the hands and feet, fever, nausea, vomiting and, if not treated properly, death. There is no effective medication against arsenocosis. This crisis can be minimized quickly with the help of $1.5 water filters. However, many people can’t afford them.
After his eye-opening presentation, Afifa Raihana encouraged workshop participants to spread knowledge about this problem in their own countries. Participants were encouraged to stimulate more discussion on this serious environment health problem to come up with suggestions to reduce this risk to communities.
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Comments
ak | Aug 28th, 2002
Hi Pia,
Your article is very interesting to me...I have been researching drinking water quality for quite some time; please contact me at ariana@sustainus.org.
- Ariana Kroshinsky
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