The number of arsenic patients has been increasing at an alarming rate in Kushtia’s Kumarkhali upazila.
In 2012, the upazila recorded 242 arsenic patients. So far this year, the number of cases has risen to 412, Kumarkhali upazila health complex sources said.
The health complex sources added that the number of arsenic patients was rapidly increasing due to an alleged lack of regular visits by the field workers of the Health Department.
Sources said arsenic contaminated tube-wells were last identified in a testing program conducted in 2001. As a result, a number of tube-wells previously certified arsenic-free have become re-contaminated, with users contracting arsenic poisoning after sustained usage.
Dr Akuluddin of Kumarkhali health complex confirmed this, saying that the certified tube-wells might already be contaminated. He added that most of the arsenic-free tube-wells installed by the government have gone out of order due to a lack of proper maintenance and monitoring.
Akuluddin went on to say that a project to install new arsenic-free tube-wells under the Kumarkhali upazila public health office was approved recently, but the office has yet to take any action.
Sources said the level of contamination was very high in the Padma riverside areas. A large number of people in the population centres of Shelaidah, Jagannathpur and Chandpur of Kumarkhali upazila have been suffering from different skin diseases including skin discolouration. Meanwhile, inhabitants of the villages of Hashimpur and Dayarampur claimed that they felt chest and backbone pain.
The arsenic affected patients of the region have been growing increasingly desperate, as no government, private or social organisations have yet offered assistance.