Widespread arsenic contamination in Gopalganj
Sunday, 13 June 2010
Our correspondence
GOPALGANJ, June 12: More than two hundred thousand people in different unions of Gopalganj Sadar Upazila are under threat from arsenic poisoning through contaminated ground water.
A recent survey by non-government organisation BRAC-WASH on 20823 tubewells in Gopalganj Sadar Upazila reveals that 98 per cent of the tubewells were arsenic contaminated.
In the survey, 48,976 families with 3,49,990 members were tested. Among them, 371 persons were found to be suffering from severe arsenic poisoning (arsenicosis), 91 alone in Chandradigolia village of Paikkandi Union Parishad.
The survey was conducted from January 2007 to December 2011, in eight groups in 22 unions under Gopalganj Sadar Upazila.
Nurul Nazmul, a college teacher of Durgapur Union, said that for the 52,000 people in the thirteen villages under the union living there was not a single arsenic-free tubewell or any other source of pure drinking water. Finding no other alternative, people were drinking the arsenic tainted water and ending up suffering from various effects of arsenic poisoning.
The executive engineer, Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE), Gopalganj, told this correspondent that about a million people were suffering from maladies brought on by the arsenic in their bodies. About 99 per cent tubewells in all upazilas were more or less contaminated by arsenic. They have all been marked with red paint and signboard warning people not to drink water from that particular tubewell, he said adding that the department has already informed the concerned ministry about widespread arsenic contamination.
GOPALGANJ, June 12: More than two hundred thousand people in different unions of Gopalganj Sadar Upazila are under threat from arsenic poisoning through contaminated ground water.
A recent survey by non-government organisation BRAC-WASH on 20823 tubewells in Gopalganj Sadar Upazila reveals that 98 per cent of the tubewells were arsenic contaminated.
In the survey, 48,976 families with 3,49,990 members were tested. Among them, 371 persons were found to be suffering from severe arsenic poisoning (arsenicosis), 91 alone in Chandradigolia village of Paikkandi Union Parishad.
The survey was conducted from January 2007 to December 2011, in eight groups in 22 unions under Gopalganj Sadar Upazila.
Nurul Nazmul, a college teacher of Durgapur Union, said that for the 52,000 people in the thirteen villages under the union living there was not a single arsenic-free tubewell or any other source of pure drinking water. Finding no other alternative, people were drinking the arsenic tainted water and ending up suffering from various effects of arsenic poisoning.
The executive engineer, Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE), Gopalganj, told this correspondent that about a million people were suffering from maladies brought on by the arsenic in their bodies. About 99 per cent tubewells in all upazilas were more or less contaminated by arsenic. They have all been marked with red paint and signboard warning people not to drink water from that particular tubewell, he said adding that the department has already informed the concerned ministry about widespread arsenic contamination.