Fixing the arsenic problem

Household installation of Chulli water purifier

I am a part-timer on arsenic mitigation works for my company GlaxoSmithKline's corporate social responsibility (CSR) project. Naturally, the report has drawn my attention and for a number of reasons it also inclined me to analyse the topic.

Many tube-wells of various depths are contaminated by arsenic in all districts except the Hill Tracts. The catastrophe is no less than any recent calamities in the country. The consequences are more serious. Newspaper reports say that there are 38,000 patients and 3 crore are taking contaminated water.

The device "Chulli Water Purifier" is definitely a ray of hope. It is so simple that anyone can make it and install it in any rural area of the country. It does not need any electricity or special power supply. I also have seen some other devices for house-hold purposes that uses filtration techniques. Surface water treatment for arsenic mitigation is thought to be the number one option prescribed by the experts.

Is it really possible to return back to pre-tube-well era? Think about that time when almost all "paras" (formed by a bunch of families) had a beautiful pond with well-managed stairs and clean surroundings with lots of trees around. They had their best time around it. They used to organise parties around it (now we organise poolside at five-star hotels). It was thought that any good family in a village should have a pond in their residential campus. For many of us, all this is history now.

I have visited many villages of the country to see the arsenic situation. The catastrophe is more than we say or see in the newspapers. A more serious situation is waiting for us due to the slow arsenic poisoning in drinking water, if we do not act now. I have seen a number of villages in Sherpur, Jamalpur, Satkhira that have no ponds. During dry season they suffer a lot for water. During summer, the water layer goes down and no water is found through the tube-wells.

So surface water treatment in those areas won't be suitable all year round and there should be alternative measurers for the dry seasons.

During pre-tube-well era, village women used to collect water from ponds. Without any treatment or so, they kept water at home for drinking in pitchers. They had no fear of water drinking. With increasing health risk (mainly due to microbiological contamination), Unicef introduced tube-wells to the country. For the last 3-4 decades, villagers were habituated to drink this tube-well water and they knew that it was safe to drink. In the history, both during pre-tube-well era and during tube-well era, village women never treated water at home. They just collected it for drinking.

One agency has distributed a kind of house-hold device to eliminate arsenic from tube-well water in some villages in Sharishabari. I have seen villagers keep it idle on the top of their "macha" (place for keeping paddy). They said that they were more concerned with crops as that was more important to them for living. The donation from the agency went in vain. One NGO has tried to make them understand about the importance of drinking arsenic-free water. That also failed. Villagers should be offered a technology or device that is very close to their traditional tube-well system. It means they should be offered a system where they will receive water to drink. Nothing should come in between.

We know the consequences of drinking arsenic contaminated water. But the villagers do not know it well. Even it is known, they do not it give priority, because arsenic contamination does not create any acute condition. In my practical experience of working with illiterate people, it is very difficult to make them understand and convince them about treating water at home.

Apart from this surface water treatment, there are some other methods of arsenic removal such as ground water treatment (chemical, organic), rain water harvesting, deep tube-well etc.

Community-based ground water treatment facilities are very close to the traditional tube-well system for villagers. I have seen a number projects in Satkhira area. These are costly and need daily maintenance. They also need three times the space that a tube-well requires. But from the user point of view, this is convenient.

In this system, ground water is stored after filtration and users collect it as they used to collect from tube-wells and it is ready for drinking. The users do not need to treat water at home. Due to lack of proper maintenance, some of the projects are not functioning well. All the materials in this system are expensive and villagers cannot afford the cost.

Many NGOs are working for rain water harvesting technique to fight arsenic contamination. Some are also delivering water to houses through pipelines. Some excellent projects are running in the Comilla area. Practically, due to lack of adequate rain in the country, it becomes difficult to collect sufficient water for the rest of the period. It is also microbiologically not safe to drink. I have heard from many users that they find a smell in the rain water and that it does not quench their thirst. The idea is very difficult for them to accept. Still with intensive motivation by the NGO people, the programme is running well.

For technical reasons of long-term apprehension, experts do not suggest deep tube-wells as means to mitigate arsenic contamination. It does not even guarantee that they will remain arsenic-free for an indefinite period.

Since its identification in early last decade, the flood of funds has hardly improved the situation. Most of the funds were utilised for research and education. Actual mitigation work remained ignored. There might have been one hundred and one reasons. But government and our conscious civil society cannot disown the responsibility for the failure.

Enough research has been done in the country. We should focus on actual mitigation work which should be sustainable. No single method would be suitable for all places. Every individual case has to be treated differently. The most important component after installation of any technology should be its sustainability and monitoring. Villagers should accept it. It needs lots of awareness development.

By the grace of huge publicity in the country and abroad, it is easy to get foreign funds for arsenic mitigation. So a suitable method can be installed in all arsenic contaminated villages of the country.

In my experience, there should be a system where villagers will get ready water for drinking as they were habituated to take water from tube-wells in the past. Development agencies or the government should deploy experts in villages for monitoring of the installed system. Otherwise, the device might go high up on their "macha" or might malfunction due to various known and unknown reasons.

Ashoke Roy works for GlaxoSmithKline's corporate social responsibility project.