Arsenic Contamination in Ground Water in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is well known for her natural disasters such as floods and cyclones. Although Bangladesh has a higher amount of water per capita than most countries in the world, she often suffers from water shortages and droughts. Since the 1980s, groundwater (of hand tube wells) has been used for drinking and cooking all over the country to avoid water borne diseases. However, since 1993 tube wells in most parts of Bangladesh have become contaminated with high amounts of arsenic (0.05 mg/liter). In this paper the water situation of a village (Taranagar) severely affected by the arsenic problem is discussed based on a survey conducted in 2005. High levels of arsenic contaminated more than 97% of tube wells in this village. More than 90% of all households had patients with arsenicosis, five patients had already died. However, the villagers still remained almost without any effective alternative for a safe water source. The efforts of the Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) to install ring wells proved to be futile, as it was not possible to dig the wells according to the guidelines, and the water of these ring wells had bad odors. The paper concludes by urging all concerned to provide safe water to the people of Taranagar village.