New Age
 
May 19, 2004
 
 
1.2m tube wells in 190 upazilas arsenic contaminated 
Dhaka Water Roundtable told 

STAFF CORRESPONDENT 
  

About 1.2 million tube-wells out of around 3.9 million in 190 upazilas in the country have been 
found to be contaminated with arsenic, according to the recent government statistics.

   The Bangladesh Arsenic Mitigation and Water Supply Project (BAMWSP) of the Department of Public 
Health Engineering, which has been screening tube-wells of 188 upazilas from 1998, has found 8.1 
lakh tube-wells contaminated with arsenic in 147 upazilas so far.

   BAMWSP project director Khoda Baksh on Tuesday, at a roundtable in the city, said around 4.6 
crore people are being affected due to arsenic contamination in those upazilas.

   On the other hand, a joint screening project of the UNICEF and DPHE found around 3.3 lakh 
tube-wells contaminated with arsenic out of a total of one million in 45 upazilas.

   The total number of upazilas, whose tube-wells are most contaminated by arsenic, is 269.

   Baksh said around 29.67 per cent of the country’s tube-wells are believed to be contaminated 
with arsenic. The total number of tube wells is about one crore.

   Baksh said they would screen tube-wells of 40 more upazilas in the next two years under the 
World Bank-funded project.

   NGO Earth Identity Project, Arsenic Policy Support Unit and the embassy of Finland jointly 
organised the round-table titled ‘Dhaka Water Roundtable: Policy, Strategy, Dialogue’, held at 
Sharina Hotel.

   Among others Nasrine R Karim, director general of Earth Identity Project, Caj Soderlund of 
the embassy of Finland, New Delhi, Paul Howard of APSU and Han Heijnen took part in the discussion 
in the first session.

   Enayetullah Khan, editor of New Age, Naseem-ur-Rahman, chief of Communication and Information, 
UNICEF, and Waliur Rahman, director of Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs, 
among others, took part in the second session of the round-table.

   Rahman said it is a gigantic task to identify arsenic contamination as the location of this 
poison does not follow any pattern.

   He stressed the importance of conducting cost-effective and complete tests at the village level.

   Rahman also called upon the private sector to come forward in this regard.

   Some participants spoke of the household arsenic mitigation programme.

   They said one of the programmes — Household Filtration System by using ferric and hydrochloric 
salts — has been a success in mitigating the arsenic problem in different upazilas of the country.

   By using this system, which was first introduced in the country in 2000 at Kachua in Chandpur 
district, a family can meet its water demand for household activities by spending only Tk 240 in a year.

   DPHE and UNICEF are currently engaged in distributing the system to the most affected areas.

   New Age editor Enayetullah Khan said that the nation, which was a water-rich country, has 
become water-poor because of the arsenic menace.

   He said besides organising round-tables and workshops, public awareness of arsenic-related 
issues should be created.

   About the media’s role in creation of such awareness, he said that it is always prepared to 
give space for an important national issue like the arsenic problem.

   WHO environmentalist Heijnen said Bangladesh should not focus only on arsenic issues as there 
are other water quality-related issues including the extensive presence of bacteria in the water 
which causes diarrhoea and other diseases.