The Daily Star September 07, 2001 All quiet on arsenic front Dr Jamal Anwar It is easy to manipulate simple-minded people of Bangladesh. Since it is a question of life and death and the very existence of our future generation, all concerned should take correct and appropriate decisions from the start and formulate national arsenic mitigation guidelines which will ensure effective, less expensive, user friendly and less polluting technology. Water poisoning is affecting as many as 85 million of Bangladesh's nearly 13 million people with arsenic-contamination (The Independent, UK; October 11, 2000). The scale of disaster in the country is beyond that of the accidents in Bhopal and Chernobyl (WHO, 2000). The arsenic mitigation programme financed by the World Bank and donors is hopelessly subject to inefficiency, bureaucracy, corruption, lack of capacity, lack of capabilities, lack of professionalism, etc (Hoorens and Koender, Deltf University, the Netherlands; 1999). So far, no programme aid has reached the people. In Paranpur, a village in Faridpur, arsenic content in most of the tube wells is above 0.5mg/l (WHO standard 0.01mg/l). Bablu Sardar, Rabeya Parvin and three daughters are suffering from arsenic poisoning. After visiting several doctors in Bangladesh they went to Calcutta. None of the arsenic mitigation teams visited Shibrampur. In Ambikapur almost all wells are at dangerous level of arsenic concentration (average 0.1mg/l). In Saidpur almost all wells are above 0.50mg/l. Yousuf Mollah and the whole family are seriously suffering from arsenic poisoning. At Vagan Bhanga in Faridpur Sadar all wells have almost 0.5mg/l arsenic. Mohammed Zakir Hossain of Alyabad Union informed me that the world mission has tested their tube well and recommended it safe for drinking. I found the water contains 0.5 mg/l (WHO standard 0.01mg/l) arsenic. In Boalmari most of the areas were never tested. At Majurdi water contains dangerous level of arsenic (0.5mg/l). Areas where concentrations were previously low now show extremely high concentration of arsenic. In Rajshahi-Chapainabagganj, one of the worst affected areas of the country, the government has not taken any steps in this area on arsenic mitigation (The Daily Jugantor, July 7, 2001). There are countless incidences of this type that repeats all over the country. Misinformed on arsenic-related diseases Epidemiological evidence suggests that arsenic is human carcinogen. Arsenic causes bladder cancer, lung cancer, kidney cancer, liver cirrhosis, nausea, diarrhoea, hypertension, diabetes, black-foot disease and hyper-pigmentation, etc. But in Bangladesh skin lesions are considered mainly skin disease and only a few people know about the relationship of arsenic in drinking water and skin lesions. The University of California (1998) provides that water containing around 0.6mg/l arsenic could cause one in 10 adult cancer deaths, the highest cancer risk ever reported. Ellen Horn's Medical Toxicology (1997) reports if arsenic in drinking water contains 0.025mg/l lifetime risks from cancer is one in 1000 persons. The level of arsenic in drinking water at the affected places in Bangladesh (0.05mg/l) could well cause cancer 21 out of every 1000 persons. In the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 1980 document Ambient Water Quality Criteria for Arsenic, a risk estimate, was developed for non-melanoma skin cancer due to arsenic exposure from drinking water based on an epidemiological study by Tseng in Taiwan. The International Agency for Research on Cancer currently classifies inorganic arsenic as Group 1. Arsenic mitigation at Harishava, Faridpur: An Example I have been watching closely arsenic mitigation activities at Harishava, Faridpur, one of the worst arsenic affected areas in the country Bangladesh. Many died because of arsenic poisoning only from one place where arsenic concentration is around 1.76mg/l. First two deep tube wells were sunk in this area and recommended for drinking this water. But they contain almost the same amount of arsenic in water. After several rounds of protest since four weeks an arsenic separator (water flowed through burnt brick chips and coarse ferruginous sand) has been constructed. Now it is producing water with permissible arsenic level. A new well was dug at Mohammed Shafi's house under arsenic mitigation programme and was recommended to drink. I found this water 40 times higher than the WHO standard. The family and other were drinking this water as it was certified to be safe. Shakti, an eighteen-year-old girl, is suffering from arsenic disease and socially isolated. She often get seriously sick and cannot get out of bed. When she was in the school (Class 8) she got arsenic lesion all over her body and friends never visited her. In another house we met Mubarak whose brother Shahid died because of drinking water from tube-wells that still pour the same poisonous water. They started drinking water from the nearby mosque, thinking water from god's house but it also contains arsenic at dangerous level. Mubarak is now suffering from liver cirrhosis, who can hardly work at his rickshaw repair shop. They spent all their savings for Shahid to be educated and work in an office. Millions of population in Bangladesh is facing the same situation like Shakti, Mubarak, and Shahid. Dutch Aid - new water supply with arsenic Very recently tap water supplied from Faridpur Municipality designed and approved by the consultants of Dutch Aid. It was very well known that deep wells at Faridpur are highly arsenic contaminated, but no design or effort was made to remove completely arsenic and disposal of arsenic sludge. But this water also contains arsenic higher than Bangladesh standard (0.05 mg/l). Paradoxically every morning the sand filters are back washed and arsenic sludge is disposed of in the nearby river Kumar without any treatment. The slums that live close to it have no access to tap water but the highly contaminated tube well water that contains 0.40 mg/l arsenic. The Kumar and surrounding surface aquifers are turning poisonous. Unsuccessful deep well followed by not workable separator At Dakshin Harishava where Mubarak and six other died of arsenic poisoning, authorities drilled two deep wells under arsenic mitigation programme. But these wells also contain dangerous level of arsenic 1.76 mg/l (WHO standard 0.01 mg/l). I have found most of the areas tube-wells are not yet analysed for arsenic. People obtained impressions from the NGOs and aid agencies that if water contains iron, it is contaminated. But I found many wells with low iron but very high arsenic concentration. All wells at Dhakin Tepakhola ranges at dangerous level of arsenic. The same authority has very recently set an arsenic separator. Such separators have proved unsuccessful in other areas due to clogging, growth of bacteria within the filter etc. It is not understandable why the mitigation authority after contaminating deep aquifer are installing expensive separator which will require servicing by the engineers. Villagers complain that after several requests the Public Health Department told them that the villagers have to change the sand, clear the sludge but they do not have any idea about the complicated mechanics of the sand filter. Failure of arsenic stakeholders We met Aler Khan of Dakshin Tepakhola. He said that his water does not contain iron, tastes sweet and about 300 persons drink this water. But after test, it was found to be at dangerous level 0.3 mg/l. We travelled to several remote villages in Faridpur district. We found most of the wells are at dangerous level of arsenic. At Majurdi, Boalmari, we found most of the well at dangerous level of arsenic but none of the stakeholders ever visited this area. In Faridpur district we could not found a single well coloured in red or green. While taking classes with the school students from class eight to ten, I found most of the students do not know about arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh till today there is no prescribed method of water sample collection and analysis. Water sample should be acidified to Ph2 for arsenic analysis, if not the result will be wrong. I found no drinkable water in many areas although the NGOs and DPHE have recommended these wells. Arsenic sludge disposal Water supplies of all contaminated areas of Bangladesh dispose of highly toxic arsenic sludge to rivers or nearby pond. The old units also dispose of arsenic sludge to nearby waterways contaminating surrounding areas. This possibly made Faridpur Sadar one of the worst affected areas in the country. Average arsenic concentration in Faridpur is about 0.300mg/l (300 times higher than the WHO standard). Tube-well bonanza While visiting affected areas many people came with water samples requesting to test newly installed tube-wells. The tube-well companies all over the country gave impression that they know of "a layer which does not contain arsenic". Believing this the innocent villagers set their tube wells at a different place. Abul Karim Khan of Vagan Bhanga newly installed a tube well which contains 0.5mg/l arsenic (50 times higher than the WHO standard). British Raj and deep tube-wells The British Geological Survey (BGS), the UK's most prestigious hydrology centre, carried out studies on behalf of the Bangladeshi government in the mid-1980s and early-1990s, more than six years before arsenic was shown to be the cause of the mysterious illnesses affecting millions of people. S Connor and F Pearce (19.01.01) described in the Independent News. UK, "British scientists failed to detect dangerous levels of arsenic in the supply of drinking water implicated in the biggest mass poisoning in history. Two studies of groundwater quality in Bangladesh carried out by British hydrologists failed to monitor natural arsenic levels even though the testing was suggested in voluntary guidelines drawn up by the World Health Organisation. If one really wanted to be charitable to the BGS, you'd excuse them for not finding it the first time, but failing to look a second time appears to be inexcusable." Surprisingly the British Geological Survey did not work with Bangladesh Geological Survey on geological investigations. More dangerous is their recommendation for deep tube wells, as they reported, "Available data shows that aquifers deeper than 150-200m are essentially arsenic-free over much of Bangladesh. Systematic sampling under the project "Groundwater Studies for Arsenic Contamination in Bangladesh" showed only 2 out of 280 wells deeper than 200 meter to be contaminated (BGS, MML UK, 1998)." Donor aided arsenic mitigation projects installed several hundreds of deep tube wells at rich man's houses. Deep well is only successful in the southern districts of Bangladesh, where upper contaminated aquifer is separated by several meters of clay layers. But saline intrusion may displace the whole mitigation programme. Local contractors are happy to install a well at a cost of Tk 50 to 100 thousand using conventional method without protecting upper contaminated aquifers. The UNICEF has allocated two million dollars to the DPHE for installation of some 5,500 water points such as deep tube wells (Lockwood, UN Resident Co-ordinator, Feb 27-28, 1999). Such drilling has now contaminated most of the deep aquifers of Faridpur, Kushtia and other northern districts. In their own countries construction of deep wells on contaminated water is strictly prohibited. On July 18, news on national TV announced successful completion of several hundreds of deep tube wells. Now, who will be responsible for contaminating the deep aquifers? Knockout tournament There are several methods that have been applied in Bangladesh but these methods did not reach the people. Several of the methods are inadequate, expensive and after treatment and filtration waterborne pathogen become present in water. Different suggested water options are pond sand filter, rainwater harvester, surface water (two-chamber unit) treatment, DPHE-DANIDA filter, Safi filter, 3-pitcher filter, alcan, garnet, local filters and expensive filters available from foreign companies, etc. Alcan and others Technology of Alcan is based on aluminium. But use of aluminium is a grave health concern. The neurotoxic effects of aluminium first appeared during the 1940s, when it was observed that direct application to the cortex of monkeys produced convulsions with recurrent seizures (Kopeloff et al., 1947). Several other studies followed all noting that the central nervous system of rabbits, cats, dogs and ferrets was vulnerable to aluminum, reacting with seizures, neuro fibrillary change, and epilepsy. In 1987 Norwegian researchers pointed to a statistical link between areas with high aluminium in drinking water and Alzheimer disease. Brown (1989) correlated Alzheimer disease with aluminium levels in drinking water in England: Aluminium concentration in natural water in Bangladesh is quite high, Peuraniemi, Institute of Geoscience and Astronomy, University of Oulu, Finland found aluminium concentration in investigated areas of Bangladesh notably higher than typical values world-wide. Aluminium concentration in all surface waters greatly exceed that of WHO (1996) drinking water standards (200µ g/I) in all areas studied (Islam, et al., 2000). There is an increasing number of studies pointing to a pathogenic role of aluminium in the onset of Alzheimer's disease. Aluminium accumulates in the nucleus of tangle-bearing neurones in-patients with Alzheimer's disease (Perl and Good, 1988). The primary source of aluminium in drinking water is alum and therefore it is recommended in the industrial countries to reduce use of alum and conventional filtration is also effective. In industrial countries average 2 L water are consumed daily that is 20-45 mg aluminium intake occurs in a 70-kg reference man. The drinking water guideline of 0.05 mg/I for aluminium is used. Now western countries with the rise of health consciousness the water supplies rarely use aluminium as coagulant. The normal water of Bangladesh is high in aluminium and after treatment with activated aluminium the aluminium content will rise dramatically, replacing one poison with other. Activated alumina is highly selective towards As (V), and this strong attraction results in regeneration problem, possibly resulting in 5 to 10 per cent loss of adsorptive capacity (US, EPA, 1999). The imported activated aluminium has to be imported and the initial cost is very high (Tk 15,000 per unit) which needed to be changed after every 120,000 litres. The replacement cost is Tk 10,000 (BRAC, 2000). The company has cleverly placed several version of separator. There is no disposal programme which means it will contaminate with aluminium and arsenic the surrounding environment. Why arsenic contaminated areas in Bangladesh should use the same costly technology as used in South-eastern Dakota and elsewhere in the USA if cheaper and as effective and user friendly measures are available? Steven Technology for Arsenic Removal is based on coagulation and filtration, where they add iron salt (iron sulphate or iron chloride) as coagulator with oxidising agent bleaching powder. Doses need to be optimised on the basis of water analysis. This secret packing has to be imported and rural population has to depend on suppliers and local agents. Besides chlorination can pose additional problems as it may produce THM (Trihalomethanes) which is carcinogen. The Bangladesh Arsenic Mitigation and Water Supply Project has approved such inappropriate technologies for Bangladesh. It is easy to manipulate simple-minded people of Bangladesh. Since it is a question of life and death and the very existence of our future generation, all concerned should take correct and appropriate decisions from the start and formulate national arsenic mitigation guidelines which will ensure effective, less expensive, user friendly and less polluting technology.