Arsenic Mitigation

Serious health hazards by arsenic-contaminated drinking water

Arsenic is a metalloid element that comprises of a number of poisonous compounds. Arsenic extensively distributed in the shell of the earth and its observed amount is quite huge in ground water supplies in some conuntries.

Long term effects by drinking this contaminated water are skin, lung, bladder and kidney cancer.

Prior to meet the sources of the drinking water in Bangladesh, since 1970s many tube wells have been dig by the government and NGOs. It was 1993 that arsenic was first found in the water of northren side in Bangladesh; allowing the dig to reach deeper into 200 - 300 m for the water source.

Tube wells are the main sources of drinking water in rural Bangladesh, but unfortunately over the last 20 years, these have been secretly poisoning the villagers, causing them dangerous latent diseases such as kidney cancer and malfunction in women's reproductive organ etc. Of 469, 270 tube wells are already contaminated, approximately leaving over 30 million people at further risk of contamination.

Arsenic Catastrophe

Long term drinking of arsenic contaminated water leads to skin pigmentation, development of warts, skin and liver ulcers and in severity, causes cancer. In Bangaldesh, above 1000 cases of chronic arsenicosis have been detected, yet millions are in further danger. Prohibition of contaminated water and having proper medical treatment are the most effective ways to eliminate the disease.

JBCF's Action

The desirable level of aresnic in water is 50μg/L. By using the field kit 0.4 - 0.7 ppm arsenic has been detected in Dohar (ongoing project) .

Boiling water eliminate arsenic compound, the villagers are on verge of this notion which is infect, not true. Therefore, JBCF aims to give education about arsenic and its exposure through out the village.

We are performing a purification experiment of ponds and rivers with hand-turned pumps. However, rivers are polluted with human sewage and factory disposal, endangering other deadly health and sanitation hazards. In the context of a developing country, a plenty of problems still await to tackle.