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Arsenic
This, as you already know is a great challenge for the people in Bangladesh, as well as around the world. We at Imperial College of Science, Medicine, Technology and Agriculture have a role to play here. There is a lot of activity in this area, The London Arsenic Group are involved and are based at UCL. Medics could look into the treatment aspect of it. Anyway, enough ranting from the resident non-expert. This is a cut and paste job from someone who knows stuff.
Setting the Scene
Prior to the 1970s, the people of Bangladesh (then only 35 million) relied on surface water for their daily requirements. The water was directly taken from ponds and shallow hand pumped wells. But this water became increasingly polluted. The pollution stemmed from poor sewage systems in India and Bangladesh, newly established industrial plants frequently dumped their waste in the water. This ultimately made its way into the low-lying plains of Bangladesh. This contamination led to various health problems such as cholera and the extensive pollution of the environment. Western aid agencies, primarily the World Bank (grrrrrr...Ed) and the United Nations International Children's and Educational Fund (UNICEF) suggested the "solution" to the immediate problem of infection and industrial contamination. They advocated tapping the groundwater as a resource. This seemed to be a simple, cheap and effective, solution to the problem. Groundwater could be easily tapped by constructing a simple steel hand pump. Soon after, millions of dollars were spent on digging shallow tube wells by western engineers and aid agencies. But no one told the government or the villagers to test for arsenic. The villagers dug more wells. Now there are over eleven million wells. In the early 1990s, it was discovered that the well water, which had seemingly provided a solution to the country's water problems, came with a hidden poison. The well water was laced with naturally occurring arsenic. No one had thought to check for arsenic contamination of well water when the wells were being dug.
If this has not got you motivated I don't know what will Please email me any contributions. Thankyou |
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Send mail to fuad.ali@ic.ac.uk with ideas, news and
abuse.
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