The Daily Star  October 31, 2003  

                        $ 1.20 lakh ADB grant to review arsenic situation
                        UNB, Dhaka

                        Asian Development Bank (ADB) will give Bangladesh 
                        120,000 US dollars as technical assistance grant to 
                        review the situation of arsenic contamination in the 
                        country and evolve a strategy to address it.
                        The goal of the grant is to provide safe drinking water 
                        and improve the health and economic conditions of the 
                        people exposed to arsenic and other groundwater 
                        contamination, says an ADB release from its headquarters 
                        in Manila.
                        The grant will go to Local Government Division to 
                        compile the progresses of ongoing mitigation activities 
                        and formulate a strategy suggesting priority 
                        interventions with specific timeframe. 
                        Arsenic contamination was identified as a problem in the 
                        mid-90's when groundwater was believed to be the most 
                        dependable source of safe drinking water while most 
                        people have developed the habit of drinking tube-well 
                        water.
                        Until then, Bangladesh earned appreciation from external 
                        agencies for its tremendous achievement of 97 per cent 
                        access to safe drinking water from some 4 million 
                        tube-wells installed across the country in last three 
                        and a half decades. It was a great relief also for the 
                        country often exposed to diarrhoeal diseases. 
                        Some 50,000 tube-wells have so far been tested and 63 
                        per cent of them have been found contaminated with 
                        unacceptable concentrations of arsenic. The permissible 
                        limit of arsenic concentration in water is 0.05 
                        milligram per litre.
                        Long-term health effects of arsenic concentrations are 
                        extensive, resulting in arsenicosis, skin cancers and 
                        damages to kidney, stomach and lever.
                        So far, some 4000 cases of arsenicosis patients have 
                        been identified while the government is conducting 
                        surveys to identify patients of arsenic contamination 
                        with assistance from external sources.
                        The health effects of drinking arsenic-contaminated 
                        groundwater could be reduced by 70 per cent by replacing 
                        31 per cent of the tube-wells in the country with deeper 
                        wells, some surveys suggest.
                        The government, with assistance from development 
                        partners, has initiated pilot projects in this aspect.
                        Although arsenic contamination in groundwater has been 
                        reported from various regions of the world, including 
                        Taiwan, Argentina, Alaska, Chile, Mexico, China, 
                        Mongolia, Ghana and Hungary, the single largest 
                        contamination has so far occurred in the lower Ganges 
                        delta region covering parts of Bangladesh and Indian 
                        state of West Bengal.