But execution of the project will now continue with the still unutilised $25 million as bank-funding for the four-year project (BAMWSP) closed on June 30.

The project mainly aims to provide alternative sources of safe drinking water in arsenic affected areas.

"We will now have a demand-driven approach, not a supply-driven one as in the cases of other projects of the Department of Public Health and Engineering (DPHE)," said Project Director Kamal Uddin Ahmed.

A high-level team from the World Bank (WB) headquarters in Washington visited Dhaka last month and negotiated extension of the project as its target was yet to be achieved.

So far the project has completed screening of contaminated tube-wells in 189 upazila and alternative options for safe drinking water is being given to some seriously affected areas since mid-2002.

In the last four years, the project utilised $6.74 million, which is 21 per cent of the fund for mitigation activities. But it did not virtually benefit the target people. Besides, the pace of the work was 'too slow,' the WB team said.

The WB and its co-financiers have put two preconditions for further funding -- priority to the community which demands safe water options and financial management by the community leaders themselves.

Besides, it was agreed that the BAMWSP in cooperation with the DPHE will only act as a catalyst giving technical support while community leaders would manage fund disbursement and decide on the best drinking water options for the community concerned.

Four options are now being given to the affected areas -- dug wells, pond-sand-filters (PSF), rain-water-harvesting (RWH) and deep-tubewells (only in coastal belt).

More than 80 million people in 62 districts are exposed to drinking arsenic contaminated water, mostly from hand-pumped tube-wells. Surveys show naturally occurring arsenic in many areas is more than the WHO-recommended level of 50 parts per billion (ppb).

In a number of upazila, all tube-wells have been painted red to prohibit people from drinking water from those.