While
the presence of arsenic in groundwater has long been established in Bangladesh
and the neighboring Indian state of West Bengal, it has for the first time been
found in Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state. As the
latest issue of the Delhi fortnightly, Down to Earth, which broke the
story, reports, “We found village after village affected, effectively
re-drawing the country’s arsenic contamination map.”
As
has been repeatedly demonstrated in Bangladesh, there is considerable confusion
over the causes of this contamination and, even more so, regarding the possible
cures or preventive measures. This May, a villager from Ballia visited the
prestigious All-India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, where it was
confirmed that the lesions all over his body – two fingers had developed
ulcers and had been amputated earlier – were due to arsenic in his blood.
In
January, Dipankar Chakraborti, Director of the School of Environmental Studies
in Jadavpur University, Kolkata (Calcutta), who has for years researched arsenic
contamination in Bangladesh and his native state of West Bengal, sent his
investigators to Ballia. He knew the geography of the area and found traces of
the poison in half the samples collected in 55 villages. The level was beyond
the Indian guideline of 10 parts per billion (ppb); 8 per cent had levels over
500 ppb.
Heads
in the Sand
Local
officials were indifferent, if not openly hostile. The executive engineer of the
Ballia Water Board said, “There is more politics in the situation and less
arsenic. This is being done to gain political mileage.” The Chief Medical
Officer said that he was retiring soon, so did not have to bother about the
disease. The federal government agencies in New Delhi also denied that
contamination had been traced in Uttar Pradesh, stating that only West Bengal
and one district in adjoining Bihar state were affected.
If
such ignorance or indifference is not surprising among government agencies and
officials, what is a matter of grave concern elsewhere is the criticism of UN
agencies which have only been trying to help, as is the case in Bangladesh.
Because
wells and other sources of water are polluted during the floods that perennially
devastate the deltaic country, UNICEF launched a program some three decades ago
to fund the country’s Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) to
install tubewells to draw water from the aquifers. Today, some four million
tubewells provide water to 95 percent of Bangladesh’s villagers. Not all are
affected, but it is difficult to identify which are, because contamination can
shift underground. Tubewell taps marked red for danger can prove innocuous and
vice versa.
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No-one
was aware of the menace till villagers in Bangladesh began complaining of sores
on their hands, feet and other limbs
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Unknown
to UNICEF, when aquifers were tapped for the first time, sediment-containing
arsenic, which had existed deep in the earth due to geological factors, began to
contaminate the sub-surface water. Thousands of years ago, the arsenic was
eroded from rocks in the Himalayas and other high-lying source areas and
deposited in regions along rivers that originate in the hills. In the 1970s, no
one was aware of the menace till villagers in Bangladesh and some districts of
West Bengal later began complaining of sores on their hands, feet and other
limbs.
At
a meeting of Asian environmental journalists in Comilla, Bangladesh in 1999,
this correspondent was astonished to hear a senior Bangladeshi government health
officer claim that his country was “a victim of UNICEF aggression” and that
this was a case of “criminal negligence”. The officer went to ask
rhetorically whether “UNICEF was for Bangladesh or Bangladesh was for
UNICEF,” implying presumably that it had experimented with this technology and
not cared about the catastrophic consequences. He demanded to know how UNICEF
had failed to act although West Bengal had identified the problem in 1983.
This
is by no means an isolated case of paranoia. Last May, the High Court in London
admitted a petition on behalf of two Bangladeshi victims, suing the British
Geological Survey (BGS) for damages for not warning them and other villagers
after its 1992 survey found traces of arsenic in groundwater. They cite how the
World Health Organization has described it as “the largest mass poisoning of a
population in history”. The case is likely to have a broader impact on the
potential liability of other scientists employed in aid projects in developing
countries. “This is of great concern to the scientific community and those who
fund it,” one lawyer told the court.
According
to the Financial Times in London, the British government’s National
The
truth is that some 40 million Bangladeshis have been drinking water
containing arsenic that is sometimes a hundred times above the safety
level.
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Environment
Research Council (NERC) had been trying to quash the Bangladeshis’ claims on
the ground that its BGS unit did not bear any responsibility towards the people.
The NERC also strenuously denied any negligence. It argued that the survey was
funded by the government’s Overseas Development Agency, and that the subject
matter of the report was agreed with that agency. It said there was no
contractual relationship between BGS and the Bangladesh government, its
agencies, or the claimants.
To
complicate matters further, a protracted battle is being waged between John
McArthur from University College, London, who accuses the BGS of not parting
with data from its surveys. He is also at pains to point out that his team was
the first to cite the geochemistry behind the world’s biggest outbreak of
arsenic poisoning. He alleges that by BGS not giving him access to its data on
2,000 water samples, scientists in Bangladesh and elsewhere are being prevented
from coming to a consensus on how the arsenic got into the water.
After
this correspondent wrote an article in 2000 detailing the imbroglio over arsenic
in Bangladesh and mentioning how Bangladeshi journalists ought to have checked
their facts more thoroughly before repeating sensational allegations, Dr.
McArthur wrote to me accusing me of the very same shortcoming! He was upset that
I had wrongly credited the BGS for being the first to trace the link with
geological sediments and enclosed lengthy correspondence with the BGS along with
articles from the New Scientist and scientific journals.
The
Way Forward
The
harsh truth is that some 40 million Bangladeshis have been drinking water
containing arsenic that is sometimes a hundred times above the safety level. The
situation is far too serious for anyone in any country to settle scores or make
sensational and often senseless allegations against others. The overwhelming
need is for scientists, experts and government agencies to bury the hatchet and
come to an understanding first of how the poisoning has occurred, so that the
proper mitigation measures can be taken without further controversy.
There
appears no doubt that the University College team is on the right track. The
Bihar district, as is the case of Ballia in Uttar Pradesh, lies not far from the
Ganges river, which starts in the Himalayas and winds its way southwards before
flowing into Bangladesh. A couple of years ago, a UNICEF official in Tokyo
handed me a document which showed how Hanoi and other areas in Vietnam are also
tracing arsenic in groundwater, which is borne by the Mekong, a river which
originates in the highlands. Come hell or high water, solutions have to be found
to end this terrible scourge or at least mitigate it.
* Darryl D’Monte is
the founder President of the International Federation of Environmental
Journalists and is serving a second term until 2003. He is also the Chairperson
of the Forum of Environmental Journalists of India (FEJI) and a syndicated
columnist and freelance writer. He has published two books: “Temples or Tombs?
Industry versus Environment: Three Controversies”, Center for Science &
Environment, New Delhi, 1985 and “Ripping the Fabric: The Decline of Mumbai
and its Mills”, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2002. He was previously
the Resident Editor of the “Indian Express” (1979-1981) and of the “Times
of India” (1988-1994) in Mumbai. Your emails will be forwarded to him by
contacting the editor at: ScienceTech@islam-online.net.
