Arsenic in Drinking Water
by A. Mushtaque R. Chowdhury Aug. 2004
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Source: Scientific American
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Notes
- In 1970's and 1980's Bangladesh government and UNICEF took an ambitious project to bring clean water to the nations villages.
- In the past, too many children were dying of diarrhea from drinking surface water contaminated with bacteria.
- There preferred solution was a tube well a simple hand operated pump that sucks up water through a pope from a shallow underground aquifer.
- It was affordable and with easy loans from nongovernmental agencies, many of the poor installed these in their courtyards.
- This well took the burden off of women who no longer had to carry pots and pans for miles to get water.
- By the early 1990's 95% of Bangladesh's population had access to safe water. However, everybody neglected to check the water for arsenic.
- In 1983, a dermatologist determined that the skin lesions on some of his patients were from arsenic poisoning
- Over the next few years scientists determine that the aquifers in West Bengal were severely contaminated with arsenic.
- 30% of the tube wells are known to have more than 50 micrograms of arsenic per liter of water, with 5 to 10 percent providing more than 6 times that amount.
- 35 million people almost a quarter of the people are drinking fatal levels of arsenic.
- Researchers recently found that arsenic was in the contents of coal rice varies from 50-180 parts per billion.
- There are hardly any guidelines to as what levels of arsenic in food may be dangerous.
- Bangladesh is not alone other countries such as India, Nepal, Vietnam, China, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Taiwan, Mongolia and even the U.S are going through the same problem.
- Arsenic in drinking water constitutes to the largest case of mass poisoning.
- In the second stage, white spots appear mixed with the black ones, legs swell and the palms and soles crack and bleed
- In the third stage sores turn gangrenous, kidneys or liver may give away and in 20 years cancer shows up.
- Major cause of death is in terminal cancers especially of the bladder, kidney, liver and lung.
- Health officials offer ointments to relieve the pain and prevent infection.
- Drinking safe water gets rid of early symptoms of arsenic poisoning.
- Providing safe water is difficult.
- In 1998, the government creates the Bangladesh Arsenic Mitigation and Water Supply Project.
- Villagers want arsenic free water, but do not want to go back to the ways of waling miles to get water.
- Over the past few years, BRAC and other organizations have implemented a pilot program to piper water treated at a centralized facility to villages.
- $290 million will fund and integrated five year testing, mitigation, monitoring program for arsenic all over Bangladesh. This will provide 86,000 villages with tube wells. Bangladesh cannot afford this.
Summary: In Bangladesh, a very dangerous poison known as arsenic was found in the water. People were getting ill and children were dying from drinking contaminated water. There was a solution of installing a hand operated pump that sucks up water through a pope from a shallow aquifer, because it was affordable and a easy way to access water that wasn't dirty. However, a dermatologist found that his patients were being poisoned from arsenic in 1983. Eventhough the villagers thought the water was clean, scientists have found that the aquifers were beig contaminated by arsenic throughout time. About 30% of the tubes were found with high arsenic levels and over 35 million people had been drinking arsenic water. Causing severe damage like causing legs to swell and cause cancer and even death. In conclusion, drinking safe water can help get rid of early symptoms of arsenic poisoning.
Reflection: After reading this article it made me greatful for what I am given. Like clean water it makes me sad that not everyone has access to clean water. As a matter of fact, people go through a lot of horrible things that they shouldn't go through. Come to think of it, once we recieved what we want, we either think that there's nothing to worry about or we take it for granted. We should take care of our water and schools should create fundraisers to raise money to help out countries who can't afford water.