Arsenic in Drinking Water
- Water in Bangladesh was poisoned. Government took action in the 70's and 80's
- People were dying from diarrhea because of the contaminated water.
- 95% of the population had access to safe water in the 90's. The majority of this came from the 10 million tubewells.
- The water was considered safe, but was not tested for arsenic.
- 30% of tubewells had more than 50 micrograms of arsenic per liter, which is considered dangerous.
- Arsenic also contaminated into the rice fields because they were being grown with the contaminated water.
- Arsenic can lead to diarrhea, sores, abdominal pain and kidney/liver failure. Cancers may show up.
- Bangladesh has two freshwater aquifers that have a low risk of arsenic.
Bangladesh seem to had come back from a freshwater crisis with proper government efforts. Over 10 million tubewells provided people with access to drinking water. However they then faced another problem. Without testing the water for arsenic, the water was deemed by the government safe for consumption. Arsenic was also consumed through rice because of how the rice was grown. The solution to this was to drill into aquifers farther underground because they were less likely to contain arsenic.
Reading this made me understand that even if something can be considered safe by the government, there can still be some mistakes. Of course that doesn't mean I should lose all trust in the government, but it does mean I should be more cautious. There's literally millions of things that can kill me, most of which I will probably not see coming. But for something that I need everyday, like water, it'll be much harder to notice. It's very hard to progress forward if basic necessities, such as water, can get you killed if you're not careful.