Review of Article on Arsenic Crisis in Bangladesh

USnews.com finds that India is an area where a large majority of the population do not have access to clean water. Indians have to spend 62 more cents than the British for their water, which is estimated to be 20 percent of their average income. These are the circumstances that they have to live with in, where the only alternative is to use contaminated water. Those who choose to do so often face a risk of dying from an illness, more often from diarrhea. Exposure to dirty water accounts for the death of 140,000 kids in India.

Water is an essential basic human need. Clean, safe drinking water is scarce and there are millions of people around the world that spend a full day searching for the resource. Worldwide access to clean, safe drinking water is a simple human right and an essential step towards cultivating living standards worldwide. Yet, more than one in nine people still lack dependable access to this valuable source. It is estimated that every person needs 20 - 40 liters of clean, safe water for drinking, cooking, and other factors that affect your health. (Editorials, 2010) The lack of access to improved water affects those living in poor, developing regions; however, even populations living in countries with exceptional water

Arsenic is a ubiquitous carcinogen that is both produced commercially and prevalent in nature. Its clinical harms to humans include hypertension, cardiovascular diseases (Chen 53; Chen 342; Tseng 15) and diabetes as well as typically skin, lung and bladder cancer (Rohan 7; IPCS 521). Given its toxicity and its potential to contaminate water, air, and soil from both geological and anthropogenic sources, it is therefore of significant environmental concern. This paper aims to discuss the harms and benefits of Arsenic by comparing Rachel Carson’s account of Arsenic in Silent Spring to modern research. It is noteworthy that although her findings are largely accurate, it fails to account for the benefits of Arsenic to human health as a form of specialized treatment. This paper will also present reasons as to why in spite of the rise of immunotherapy as an alternative treatment to Arsenic while avoiding risks of Arsenic, its prohibitive costs implies that Arsenic still has a role in making specialized medical treatment accessible to particular patients. Namely, the following questions will be answered:

In both sub-districts; only few respondents have been using wells for their drinking water. Those wells usually get contaminated during heavy rains (see figure 22) and are no more safe for consumption since the colour get changed and the chemical and microbiology constituents too. As solution to that problem, due to a lack of financial resource, some of the respondents still used that contaminated well water after filtering and boiling it for some minutes. Those having more financial power buy fresh water in the meantime (see Annex 1).

The Antofagasta Region has an extremely arid climate and low rates of precipitation, which greatly limit water availability and further exacerbate the effects of the natural arsenic contamination. The Loa River and its tributaries of San Pedro, Salado, and San Salvador are the only surface water sources, but this river is very saline and home to a range of arsenic levels. These arsenic levels naturally fluctuate due to its natural volcanic and geothermal origins, but generally, all the concentrations are above safe set limits for human consumption as set by the World Health Organization at 10 ug/L.

Intro – “Over 4,000 children die every day from water related diseases. In fact, more lives have been lost after World War II due to contaminated water than from all forms of violence and war. This humanitarian catastrophe has been allowed to fester for generations. We must stop it.” [Herald Tribune]

The arsenic contamination in Bangladesh is a serious environmental disaster in human history. Although different national and international organizations are working to provide safe drinking water to the people, there is not enough technology that is economically affordable to exposed people. “So it is an important responsibility to international communities to have a sustainable technology that can save millions of peoples from the suffering and give them safe drinking water sources” (the World Health Organization, August 2012).

It’s no secret that there are countries that are more privileged than others. For example, here in the United States of America having clean drinking water, garbage pickup trucks, health clinics is something common. Like we don’t even think about not having access to these things. In developing countries things these things i just listed are more often rare than they are common. The topic i will talking about is the effects of polluted water in developing countries and solutions that can be put into effect to help change these circumstances.

Safe drinking-water is essential for healthy life, and United Nations (UN) General Assembly declared safe and clean drinking-water as a human right essential to the full enjoyment of life [1]. Moreover, the importance of water, sanitation and hygiene for health and development has been reflected in the outcomes of a series of international policy forums [1]. These have also included health and water-oriented conferences, but most importantly in the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) adopted by the General Assembly of the UN in 2000. The UN General Assembly declared the period from 2005 to 2015 as the International Decade for Action, “Water for Life” [1]. Access to safe drinking-water is important as a health and development issue at national, regional and local levels. Bangladesh, a developing country from South Asian (SA) region also takes several steps for ensuring sanitation and safe drinking water facilities among the people. As a result, Bangladesh has made great progress in this sector. The government also claimed that it has achieved the MDG indicator of ensuring safe drinking water for 85% people of the country. According to different demographic and health surveys, the percentage of using improved sources of drinking water is about 98% (reported in the latest two surveys Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) 2012-13 and Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) 2014) [2,3]. But, this achievement statistics are overlooking the shortcomings.

There are metal substances which have mixed up with the river water of Bangladesh. The substance is known as Arsenic in Bangladesh. It was first found in the West Bengal ten years ago (1995-96). Arsenic is both toxic and carcinogenic. It is in inorganic forms, dissolved in drinking water which is the most significant forms of natural exposure. Organic forms of arsenic that may be present in food are much less toxic to humans. Clinical manifestations of arsenic poisoning begin with various forms of skin diseases, which lead to damage of internal organs, ultimately to cancer and death.

Water is an essential part of the human life. According to Bob Allen, “About 70 percent of the human body is made up of water” (2007). This is a massive part of human livelihood and is manifested by the amount of water consumed daily. Water has unlimited uses and is used for hygiene and dietary consumption. Citizens often use it, but never thoroughly examine what they are consuming. Many studies have been conducted to analyze contaminants that fill water and the dangers of being unaware. The problem of water contamination is an issue that happens globally. It happens in places like Haiti, Ethiopia, Flint, Michigan, and even Alabama. These are places that are affected so severely that many people have died from the contamination. According to the United Nations Development Programme, “Half of the world’s hospital beds are filled with people suffering from a water-related disease” (The Water Project). In Opelika, Alabama according to the Marler Clark network, “At least 13 people in Lee County, Alabama have been [was] made ill in an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak traced to Sportsplex and aquatic Center in Opelika Alabama” (E. coli in Swimming Pools). This was contamination found in a swimming pool that directly affected the people. Additionally, Samford University is susceptible to water contamination if the source water is not properly protected and checked. The students regularly drink water but the thought never crosses their mind that they could possibly be a part

Clean drinking water is a scare natural resource for people living in villages in rural eastern Uganda. When clean water is available it reduces mortality rates to water-born and water-related diseases including cholera, diarrhoea and malaria (UNDP-UNEP Poverty-Environment Initiative, 2004). Unfortunately, a safe water supply is not always available to a community.

Arsenic is a highly toxic element and a very common contaminant now-a-days. It is present in earth’s crust, in clay and also in sulphur rich regions (Henker 2009). It is colourless, tasteless and odourless (Ahsan et al. 2000). It is a very common contaminant of ground water. When this water is consumed for drinking then it may cause lung disorders, kidney failures, bladder and skin cancer. Therefore, its presence poses a serious life threat to humans as well as other animals also.

This report will firstly present and express the importance of water before going about expounding the various ways in which water is being used. It will go on to demonstrate the lack of accessibility alongside the vulnerability of the resource and explaining how it would lead to water shortage on the basis of factors affecting the globe currently.

Clean, safe drinking water is scarce. Today, nearly 1 billion people in the developing world do not have access. But we take it for granted, we are wasting it, and we even pay for it a little too much to drink plastic bottles .Water is the basis of life. And yet today all over the world, too many people spend all day looking for it.