U.S. Water News Online
DHAKA, Bangladesh -- Arsenic poisoning of wells has reduced access to safe drinking water to 17 percent in Bangladesh and it may get worse, a U.N. official has said.
In the past three decades, the Bangladesh government drilled 5 million wells that provide safe drinking water to 97 percent of its 125 million population. But experts found arsenic in the groundwater in many places in 1996, reducing the number of wells that were safe for use, said Colin Davis, a water and sanitation expert at the United Nations Children's Fund.
``Bangladesh has become a victim of its own success,'' Davis said.
UNICEF helped Bangladesh drill the wells that saved millions of people from cholera and diarrhea, diseases caused by contaminated surface water.
Arsenic-tained wells have now exposed at least 24 million people to one of the world's worst mass poisoning, Davis said.
Authorities have so far tested 51,000 wells across the country and 29 percent of them contained unacceptable level of arsenic, an element that occurs naturally in groundwater. The figure could be much higher.
``So little is known about the magnitude of the problem,'' he said.
World Bank and UNICEF have provided Bangladesh more than $34 million to help build alternative sources of drinking water such as storage of rain water or treatment of pond water.
But Bangladeshis, long accustomed to easy availability of well water at home, are not changing their behavior.
``Surface water is heavily contaminated with fecal bacteria and residues from fertilizer and pesticides,'' a UNICEF study released to reporters said, ``Groundwater is still preferred.''
Authorities estimate the number of arsenic-afflicted patients at 7,600. The victims suffer from skin lesions, hardening of feet and palms, and cracks in the skin. In cases of long consumption, the symptoms may develop into ulcers and skin cancers.
Davis said it takes five to ten years for the symptoms to develop, which makes early treatment difficult.
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