Department of Entomology,
University of Manitoba at Winnipeg,
CANADA

It was 4 o’clock of a bright sunny autumn. Running into the house, Bashir Khan, a 24-year old farmer who has been plowing since morning a small piece of land to prepare for seeding his livelihood, asked his wife for a bowl of drinking water. The water sequenced the torment of his throat-cracking thirst, as it was apprehensive in his extinguished but appeased appearance. He smiled at his wife and happily went for a bathe. This Bashir Khan, one of the many unfortunates in Bangladesh, did not know what noxious devil he did take with the water. He did not know that he had taken an infinitesimal dose of a slow but poisonous mighty monster: the arsenic. He did not even think of the fact that the water he used to drink for life had, in fact, been steering him steadily toward the death. It is not only Bashir Khan but also at least a half of the population of our nation is unfortunately intaking regular doses of the cursely monger arsenic through every sip of water, or any other drink that is made from water.

The arsenic problem and its history in Bangladesh

It was in 1992, so far as I am concerned, the problem of our groundwater contamination by excessive arsenic came into the light, when a woman from Shatkhira was visiting Dr. K.C. Saha, a professor and the Head of Dermatology at the School of Tropical Medicine, Calcutta, for treatment of lesions and scars on her skins. Following that incidental discovery, researchers in the School of Environmental Studies, Jadavpur University, Calcutta, who have been working on the arsenic problem in West Bengal, became interested in probing into the issue in Bangladesh. Since then the problem of arsenic-laced underground water in Bangladesh has been an avenue of exploration to many geologists and environmentalists. Concerns rose from every wisdom corner and the issue started to appear frequently in the national newspapers in that early 90s. However, neither the government body nor the Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) were keen enough to take proper initiatives while the poor and misfortune people continued to be poisoned by the arsenic.
The recommended safe limit of arsenic in drinking water is 10 microgram per liter of water. Fred Pearce in an article that appeared in the New Scientist published from the USA (February 12, 2000; pages 16-17) reported that about 40 million people of Bangladesh, who got exposed to the silent killer arsenic through drinking water, had been taking the water contaminated at sometimes hundreds of times the recommended safety level. There are sensible reasons to be agonized that unfortunately, the current up date is even more alarming, the majority of our population is exposed to the drinking water contaminated with risky level of arsenic. Even though, there is a recommended safety limit of the poison arsenic as mentioned before, it should not be ignored to take into account that arsenic is a toxic element which bears the dangerous character of being accumulated in mammalian bodies. Since the element is a poison that can accumulate in the body, it is potentially a biocide. There are therefore always risks associated with the compound, no matter whether or not it is taken at doses below the threshold level- the dose recommended as a so-called safe.

Arsenic: the social fallacy

Despite the lion portion of our population is at risk of arsenicosis, unfortunately the most of them are not aware of it. Those who are aware of it, many of them tragically and traditionally perhaps link the disaster to the curse inflicted from god as punishments for their some sorts of misdeeds. These are the poor illiterate people who I refer to here. There is no point to accuse them and their attitudes. But there are many reasons to accuse those who are the said nucleus of the country; who, out of their cunning and canine wits, suck all the cream leaving the sour leftovers for the hard-fought hungry producers.

Why is arsenic a concern?

As reflected in above sections, the arsenic is a toxic element that poses direct health hazards. It dismantles the health with abnormalities ranging from the simple blemished skin with lesions to complicated life threatening diseases like cancers, malfunctioning of liver and kidneys and so on. The element can accumulate to take the huge toll of a life. People are usually concern of the direct mechanism through which arsenic gets into the body. However, there are some indirect threats from the treadmill of the element, as reported by Ulli Schemetzer on February 07, 1992 in the Chicago Tribune. The report stated that when arsenic contaminated water is used for irrigating agricultural crops, the element can creep into plants, grazing animals, aquatic bodies and their contents, importantly into the bodies of fishes. This widens reasons to be even more agonized, as the contamination is on the move from groundwater into major elements of our ecosystems. It may not be surprising to come up with the fact that the compound has already entered into our food chain. Our main food is rice. Fish has replaced pulses. Both of these staple and palatable constituents of the nation’s regular diets are directly or indirectly linked with the engraving threat of arsenic. This opens the window to diffuse the problem further into areas that are still regarded as the so-called safe zone. Therefore apparently none in the country is probably safe from the arsenic, not even the cream hunters and policy makers.

Why is arsenic a problem in Bangladesh?

To dig out the answer to this question we have to look back, as the roots of the arsenic disaster originated back to a generation when people in Bangladesh generally used to drink the surface water, such as, river-, canal- and pond-water, that was usually contaminated with sewage and all other different types of biotic and abiotic pollutants. Hundreds of people succumbed to death each year from gastrointestinal diseases during those days. It was UNICEF and other international agencies, which launched for sinking boreholes/tube-wells with the optimism of supplementing fresh water and saving hundreds of premature and unfortunate deaths. While doing so, these agencies, with the greatest misery of poor and coarse scientific move, failed to foresee the possible downsides of the stream. Surprisingly, none paid a little consideration of speculating the cons, if any, associated with shifting from surface water to groundwater. It was too late to realize and probe into the matter until symptoms associated with arsenic poisoning began to appear in different corners of the sub-continent (New Scientist, September 16, 1995; p 14). It is the merciless cruelty of irresponsible scientific and administrative bullies that for more than a decade a significant portion of our population has been drinking more than hundred times the safety limit of arsenic (New Scientist, February 12, 2000; p 16).
There have been debates on the possible reasons of this reckless disaster. The scientific community who tried to explain the evolution of the arsenic-laced problem splits into groups- the sub-continental and Western. These scientific communities are in the games of oxidation and reduction theories of arsenic containing iron minerals, primarily the pyrites. I think both groups probably have valid grounds to be proponent of their ideas depending on situations and contexts. However, this does not necessarily nullify the involvement of other possible and plausible causes that contribute toward the problem of arsenic. Surface water contamination from industrial and other developmental activities, occurrence of boreholes/tube-wells in shallow aquifers, the composition and concentration of phosphorus in soil, reduction of groundwater table, soil erosion, accumulation of hazardous wastages, indiscriminate use of pesticides and other agrochemicals are all the contributors to this problem.

Measures taken to mitigate the problem

Thanks to Dr. D. Chattergy of the School of Environmental Studies, Jadavpur University, who have first shown his keen interest in ringing the bell. He, being concerned from the horrendous experience of the arsenic derived setbacks in West Bengal, requested in written the Ministry of Public Health and Engineering, the UNICEF and WHO representatives in Bangladesh in March 1992 to indulge into the problem and take necessary measures. Since then several projects, both in the government and non-government levels, have been taken but an appropriate and feasible solution is yet to be discerned and put forward! What is happening behind the alleged curtains of scientific, bureaucratic and diplomatic cruelties is doing nothing but adding some kindling to the sufferings of the poor people. The Daily Star, a national daily newspaper published from Dhaka, in its August 20, 1999 issue reported that over 32 million of US dollars that was allocated toward offsetting the problem had gone down the drain and resulted nothing more than few seminars, symposia, workshops, meetings and program planning. The report speculated that the money did not benefit the victims in any ways, but it has allegedly benefited the national and international consultants. The same newspaper in its July 13, 2000 issue reported that NGOs are robbing money in the format of aids with the pleas of experimentations and solutions with regard to the arsenic problem; they apparently did not serve the cause for even a single victim.
It is understandable that the government of Bangladesh is economically not in a position to face the challenges of mitigating the horrifying disaster of arsenic by themselves. This does not necessarily reflect to the notion that they do not have anything to do. It is not the matter of commitment, rather it is the responsibility of the government to insure the safety and sound health of the people. What the government could do is probably the formation/establishment of a body to monitor the projects taken by NGOs and other national and multinational organizations. On top of that they could march for a social campaign for alternatives to using groundwater, particularly the one that suggests for using the surface water as much as possible. But unfortunately, the government apparently never came forward with appropriate initiatives. It is very much unfortunate for the nation that the government, whoever be on the power, are likely to be more prone to opening ceremonies that by no ways have any positive impact toward the betterment of the civilians. In fact the opening ceremony is seemingly a sick culture that affects the prospect of the nation, as these ceremonies cost lots of money that comes from the tax paid by these ever suffering poor people. What an irony! Someone takes the applaud and ovation in the expense of the sweat-shedding money of the applauder.
There is one news that indicates that legislative measures are going to be taken against the agencies that moved people from drinking the surface water to the groundwater. It has to be taken into consideration that science is an avenue of trials and errors. If the error is costly to the scientific community in terms of punishment, then who will dare to keep the wheel of science rolling. I think there are many reasons to think with regard to this legal action before putting the axe on self-feet. We have to think vigorously the consequence of doing so. We have to think further if we really are in positions to fight with crocodiles in the water.

Conclusion

The problem of arsenic is a humongous threat to the nation. Apparently the scientific community could not come up with feasible and affordable solution to dismantle the problem. Many of the national and international bodies are playing relentlessly with the lives of these poor people and competing among themselves for the placement of their sailing boats in the leer. The appropriate body in the government level has been seemingly not paying much attention to the problem and thereby failed to launch appropriate programs. Recently, I came across a news on the Television here in Canada. Generally, food and water is very safe here. Despite the high-tech facilities and systems, sometimes, though very rarely, water supply in a small section of the town becomes contaminated. What is really amazing to notice is that the responsible body becomes very actively involved and take immediate measures so that the problem is fixed up on an extremely priority basis. Most recently there was such an incident in a little town in Ontario. This has upset the administration and the responsible persons lost their jobs. How seriously the issue should be taken by the government is reflected in the comment of Dr. W. R. Chapel, the legendary arsenic expert in the USA, that appeared in the November 10, 1998 issue of the New York Times. While referring to the arsenic contamination in Bangladesh, he remarked that, “if this were the United States, they’d call out the National Guard and get everyone bottled water.” I think that there is no reason and way to neglect the arsenic problem in Bangladesh. If the issue is not considered with an appropriate priority, there may be the time appeared soon to lay under the huge tribute.