Thousands of villagers are still drinking water from arsenic contaminated tube-wells, contradicting the government’s claim of a successful public awareness campaign about the danger.
M Abdur Rahman Khan. 54. is Just one of the people affected by a problem the government declared a "national disaster" in 1996. He developed cancer after drinking water from a tubewell in his village of Izerapara. Sharishabari thana.
Khan said he doesn't know how long he has to live, or whether nis family will win the battle against arsenic poisoning. also known as arsenicosis.
"I have been drinking poison for the last six years and no one told me about it." said Khan, a former freedom fighter. "1 am also surprised the government's doctors in the thana health complexes couldn't tell the difference between cancer and a common skin disease.
"I have two daughters, one son and a wife. This dreadful disease affects them all and I have no money for their treatment. God help me. 1 want to recover."
Doctors at the Dhaka Community Hospital where Khan is undergoing free treatment said his chances of survival are very slim. Khan has already lost three fingers on his left hand, and his entire body is covered bv black and white spots, a characteristic cancer's final stages Raheia Begum suffers from similar problems. Her left leg was amputated two years ago after the onset of gangrene Now her right leg and her hands are beginning to show the same signs of deterioration.
"Three months ago. all the people In my village were in a panic." saia Raheia. who arrived at the Dhaka Community Hospital from Dayalnagar. Bera thana, last month. "No one knew whal caused Oils terrible disease but we were very scared.
"Then some officials from Kashinathpur thana came and tested a water sample from the lube-well shared by at least ten families. They scaled off the well and told us not to drink from it anymore. Since then we have had to walk a long way to fetch water."
There is no treatment for arsenic poisoning, although experts suggesl a diet rich in vitamins and uncontaminated water could counteract the poisoning process. However, most villagers are still not aware of the danger, much less the treatment. »
The results of an emergency arsenic mitigation project in 2i•" villages provides solid evidence of the horrific conditions the people face.
Three in every thousand villagers in the 200 villages surveyed were affected by arsenic poisoning More than 60 per cent of all tube-wells tested exhibited arsenic levels exceed Ing the permissible level of 0.05 mg/L.
Dhaka Community Hospital tested water samples from tube-wells in 60 districts and found over 66 per cent of the wells were contaminated.
Hair, nail and skin samples also showed very high level of arsenic toxicity. About 98 per cent nail samples and 89 per cent of hair samples contained toxic levels of arsenic.
The Department of Public Health Engineering, the government agency responsible for supplying clean drinking waler to remote regions, is still sinking new tube-wells even though it admits it can’t guarantee the water will be arsenic free
The department has installed about 1 1 lakh wells, while another 20 lakh wells have been installed by private initiatives The United Nations and the World Bank are accessing the contaminated tube-wells and patients while they search for new ways to provide safe drink ing water.
"I admit arsenic accumulation into the bodies of the patients is a long term Issue," said Deepak Bajracharya. UNICEFs chief of water and environmental sanitation chief, in an In terview with The Dally Star last year "We can not deny the fact wc are partially responsible for the c onsequences."