At least 12% of the population in Bangladesh are at risk of arsenic poisoning, said LGRD Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain on Saturday.
A survey was conducted in 2003 across the country’s 271 upazilas where five million tube wells were examined, and among them, excessive level of arsenic was found in 1.45 million tube wells, the minister told parliament in reply to a query.
The minister said to reduce the arsenic risk, water supply coverage was increased from 82% to 88%.
He said more than 200 villages came under pipeline water supply through various projects.
The LGRD minister said in the last 15 years, Public Health Engineering Department has created 300,000 water sources; among those, 210,000 water sources are in the arsenic prone areas.
The Human Rights Watch (HRW) criticised Bangladesh for doing little to tackle arsenic poisoning over the last 20 years since its discovery and said it affected some 20 million people.
In a report, the HRW said arsenic-related diseases kill one person every 12 minutes throughout the year.
It cited other reports that say of the 90 million children born between 2000 and 2030, up to five million are set to die from arsenic poisoning. But depending on government initiative to mitigate the problem, the number could decrease.
Thursday, March 27, 2025
