Arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh
by - 14.07.2002 16:31
Bangladesh, one of the poorest and most densely populated countries in the world, is beset by floods, tidal storms, famine and disease.
Now it is confronting the accidental poisoning of as many as 85 million of its 125 million people with arsenic-contaminated drinking water (The Independent, U.K., October 11, 2000). The scale of disaster in Bangladesh is beyond that of the accidents in Bhopal and Chernobyl (WHO, 2000). The epidemic of arsenic related cancer has just begun. The arsenic mitigation programme financed by the World Bank/donors is hopelessly subject to inefficiency, bureaucracy, corruption, lack of capacity, lack of capabilities, lack of professionalism, etc (Hoorens and Koender, Deltf University, Netherlands, 1999) So far, no programme aid has reached the people.
Arsenic contaminated water
Water from an open dug hole in Bangla "Kua" does not contain Arsenic. Besides a simple, pragmatic arsenic mitigation project, is the "Sunlight Air Clay Pot Method," based on traditional wisdom and cultural festivals. "This project is completely different from other Arsenic mitigation projects because villagers will produce clay pots, sand filters, microbial disposal etc. later distribute to other villagers and thus a rapid mitigation project can spread all over Bangladesh (Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Govt. of Bangladesh, 11June, 2000)." Since no one can earn enough money out of this project, donors and others are reluctant to finance it.
The people will invent more methods and survival strategies, if we really want to survive and refuse vested business interests of many western countries offering inadequate and expensive technologies.
