Introduction

Bangladesh, along with Nepal and the state of West Bengal in India, is facing a major disaster because of arsenic contamination of groundwater aquifers. Arsenic is a natural mineral that is present in the soil and aquifers of these countries. Where it is present in concentrations above the safe level in drinking water, it can cause significant health risks. In Bangladesh, the Bangladesh Arsenic Mitigation Water Supply Project estimates that nearly 30 per cent of all tube wells in the 258 Upazilas of Bangladesh have an arsenic content higher than the recommended safe limit. This means that an estimated 27 per cent to 60 per cent of the population is at risk from arsenic exposure (Smith, Lingas and Rahman, 2000).

Historically, Bangladesh has been a forerunner in South Asia in terms of providing its population with access to safe drinking water. It had achieved safe access to water for 97 per cent of its population and had been successful in containing the cholera outbreaks which had plagued the country for centuries. This was possible because the government of Bangladesh with assistance from organizations like UNICEF worked in the seventies and eighties to shift existing sources of drinking water to tube wells in most parts of rural Bangladesh. However, since the discovery of arsenic in ground water in the nineties, Bangladesh has been struggling once again with the problem of delivering safe water.