The Daily Star       Thu. December 12, 2002 
      

      Plan to supply arsenic-free water across country



      UNB, Narsingdi


      LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan has said the 
      government will bring six ongoing arsenic mitigation projects under one 
      umbrella programme.

      "There are six projects now being implemented in the country and it will 
      be easier to coordinate these if all the projects are brought under one 
      umbrella project," he said.

      The minister was addressing an awareness building meeting on arsenic 
      mitigation at Shibpur Upazila Parishad premises in the district yesterday.
      Shibpur Upazila Arsenic Mitigation Committee organised the programme under 
      the DPHE-UNICEF Community Based Arsenic Mitigation Project.

      UNICEF's chief of Water & Environmental Sanitation Department Colin J 
      Davis, Chief Engineer of DPHE (Department of Public Health Engineering) 
      Ishaq Ali, Deputy Commissioner of Narsingdi Akhter Hossain and police 
      superintendent Mukhlesur Rahman also spoke in the meeting chaired by 
      Upazila Nirbahi Officer M Monirul Islam.

      UNICEF is funding arsenic mitigation programmes in country's 45 upazilas. 
      Similar programmes are in progress in 199 upazilas under the supervision 
      of Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE). The World Bank, DANIDA, 
      World Vision and other NGOs are funding similar projects in 223 upazilas.
      "Arsenic is a serious problem but there is no reason to be scared. It is 
      not everywhere," Bhuiyan said hoping that programmes taken by the 
      government will be implemented properly bringing an end to the menace.

      He praised the role of DPHE for doing various works of arsenic mitigation 
      at a very low cost, which is almost half the cost in the case of other 
      organisations doing the same work.

      Bhuiyan said the government has a plan to supply tap water across the 
      country through pipeline. He urged the people to use surface water after 
      boiling.

      Colin Davis said UNICEF has been working on arsenic mitigation in 
      Bangladesh since 1996 and tested 300,000 tube-wells of the project area 
      that identified 200 hot spots. In 1999, some 1.2 million tube-wells were 
      tested, he said.

      "In our next step, we will increase our effort to provide safe water in 
      the priority areas," Davis said.

      He informed that UNICEF is going to disclose a research-based finding on 
      food chain early next year, which will identify the foods that should be 
      shunned in order to avoid arsenicosis.

      So far, UNICEF has provided the DPHE with cash and technical support of 
      around US$ 10 million under the "DPHE-UNICEF Community Based Arsenic 
      Mitigation Project", now under implementation in 25 upazilas. Earlier, 
      they provided funds for five upazilas in one phase and 15 other upzilas in 
      another phase.

      Under the same project, 3200 arsenicosis patients were identified in 20 
      upazilas. UNICEF officials said Shibpur is one of the upazilas where 
      13,062 tube-wells were tested and arsenic was found in 460 or 3.52 per 
      cent of the wells.

      Arsenic was first detected in the country in 1993 and after testing the 
      waters of 51,000 tube-wells across the country, it was found that 29 per 
      cent of the tube-wells contained the poisonous element.