Back in the 1970s, in an attempt to provide hygienic drinking water in Bangladesh, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and other aid agencies began installing millions of tube wells in Bangladesh villages as an alternative source of drinking water to contaminated surface water supplies. The program, which continued through the 1980s, was an early success. Instances of cholera, microbe-caused diarrhea, and other diseases dropped dramatically. But no one thought to analyze water for trace and ultra-trace impurities, and soon the good news turned bad. By the early 1990s, villagers began breaking out with skin disorders and experiencing fatigue symptoms of arsenicosis from drinking the water. Arsenic poisoning in drinking water in Bangladesh has been identified as one of the world’s greatest humanitarian disasters, with the World Health Organization characterizing the siutation as “largest mass poisoning of a population in history.” Out of 150 million people in Bangladesh, 35-77 million people are at risk from arsenic contamination of water. It is estimated that between 1-5 million children are at risk of death by arsenicosis, or arsenic poisoning, by 2030. Many countries with arsenic-contaminated groundwater do not face the same catastrophic outcomes as in Bangladesh.  In many communities in rural Bangladesh, much of the water for drinking, cooking and irrigation of crops (particularly rice) is contaminated with arsenic.  Chemists Without Borders hopes to remedy this.  The Arsenic Project in Bangladesh will be described from its inception as the first project developed for Chemists Without Borders and how the project has evolved into the work that is currently underway today, involving arsenic education, arsenic testing of wells and the providing of safe water to families whose wells are contaminated with arsenic.<br/>

Confronting the largest mass poisoning of a population in history by providing clean water in Bangladesh

2019 Fall National Meeting

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