Arsenic in Drinking Water
By A Mushtaque R. Chowdhury
- In the 1970s and 1980s the Bangladesh government, along with international aid agencies spearheaded by UNICEF, undertook an ambitious project to bring clean water to the nation’s villages
- Too many children were dying of diarrhea from drinking surface water contaminated with bacteria.
- Preferred solution was a tubewell: a simple, hardy, hand-operated pump that sucks water, through a pipe, from a shallow underground aquifer
- It lessened the burden on women, who no longer had to trek long distances with their pots and pails; it reduced the dependence on better-off neighbors; and most important, it provided pathogen-free water to drink
- By the early 1990s 95% of Bangladesh’s population had access to “safe” water through the country’s more than 10 million tubewells
- Everybody neglected to check the water for arsenic. In 1983, dermatologist Kshitish C. Saha of the School of Tropical Medicine in neighboring Kolkata (Cal-cutta), India, had identified the skin lesions on some patients as arising from arsenic poisoning
- Patients were mostly from the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, which shares some aquifers with Bangladesh; more pointedly, some were immigrants from Bangladesh.
- Environmental scientist Dipankar Chakraborti of Jadavpur University in Kolkata established that many aquifers in West Bengal were severely contaminated with arsenic; but the British Geological Survey (BGS) conducted an extensive test of Bangladesh’s water supply in 1993 and pronounced it safe, not having tested for arsenic.
- Today around 30 percent of Bangladesh’s tubewells are known to yield more than 50 micrograms of arsenic per liter of water, with 5 to 10 percent providing more than six times this amount
- Bangladesh government specifies more than 50 micrograms per liter as being dangerous
- The World Health Organization’s upper limit, which is also the recently revised standard of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is 10 micrograms. Unfortunately, this amount is too small to test for accurately in the field. That means at least 35 million people—almost one quarter of the population—are drinking potentially fatal levels of arsenic
- Another concern is that Bangladeshis may be ingesting arsenic through a second route: the grain they eat two or three times a day
- Arsenic in drinking water constitutes the largest case of mass poisoning in history
- The first sign of poisoning may appear as long as 10 years after someone starts drinking arsenic-laden water
- First stage symptoms of Arsenicosis: melanosis, keratosis, conjunctivitis, bronchitis and, at very high concentrations of arsenic, diarrhea and abdominal pain
- Second stage symptoms of Arsenicosis: leucomelanosis, hyperkeratosis, neural problems appear in the hands and legs, and the kidneys and liver start to malfunction
- Third stage symptoms of Arsenicosis: sores turn gangrenous, kidneys or liver may give way, and in around 20 years, cancers show up
- The major cause of death, however, is internal cancers, especially of the bladder, kidney, liver and lung
- The extent of poisoning depends on the dose and duration of exposure, interactions of the arsenic with other dietary elements, and the age and sex of the individual
- Every tubewell in Bangladesh needs to be tested; the poorest nations, especially the poorest, should check the quality of their water constantly.
- Tubewells need to be monitored not only for arsenic but also for manganese, fluoride, pesticides, other chemicals and pathogens; and this must become routine in all regions of the world where people drink water from underground.
In the early 1970s, the government and UNICEF began a project to bring clean water to villages because a lot of people in Bangladesh were poisoned from drinking arsenic-contaminated water. Tubewells, a hand-operated pump that sucks water through a pump from an underground aquifer was the preferred solution. It lessened the burden of women, who no longer had to walk long distances to retrieve water or their family. These tubewells also reduced the dependence on neighbors and provide pathogen-free water to drink. By the 1990s, 95% of Bangladesh's population had access to clean water from the country's more than 10 million tubewells. It turns out, the "clean" water wasn't so clean. 30% of Bangladesh’s tubewells hold more than 50 mg of arsenic per liter of water; with 5-10% providing more than six times this amount. The reason why arsenic is such a huge problem in Bangladesh was that the people also consumed arsenic through another source: rice. The rice are watered by the underground water. Arsenicosis, or arsenic poisoning, is caused by drinking arsenic water. Symptoms may appear 10 years after contamination. Arsenicosis can cause internal cancers and can lead to neurological and cardiovascular complications. Every tubewell in Bangladesh needs to be tested in order to eliminate arsenic water. The poorest regions should be monitored regularly and check the quality of their water constantly;not just for arsenic but also for pesticides, pathogens and other chemicals.
I am very lucky to have access to clean water. I feel that sometimes I take advantage of that fact and leave the faucet running while washing the dishes or take long showers. But now that I know others do not have that kind of luxury, and how scarce clean water is, I will try to be more conservative. I knew that poor countries have little clean water and I know that people are helping to solve that problem but I didn't know that the clean water they are using is actually contaminated. People need to be educated on how to test the water they are using so that they won't be harmed. People in developed countries can help raise money to help those in developing countries receive food, water and basic neccesities
I am very lucky to have access to clean water. I feel that sometimes I take advantage of that fact and leave the faucet running while washing the dishes or take long showers. But now that I know others do not have that kind of luxury, and how scarce clean water is, I will try to be more conservative. I knew that poor countries have little clean water and I know that people are helping to solve that problem but I didn't know that the clean water they are using is actually contaminated. People need to be educated on how to test the water they are using so that they won't be harmed. People in developed countries can help raise money to help those in developing countries receive food, water and basic neccesities