Arsenic detector at Dhaka Community Hospital

An arsenic detector was installed at the Dhaka Community Hospital (DCH) yesterday to test water from tube wells across the country.

The detector can measure concentrations of arsenic much lower than the permissible level of 0.05 milligram per litre or 50 parts per billion. The hospital used to test its water samples at a laboratory at Jadavpur University in Calcutta.

Dhaka Community Hospital is testing water samples from tube wells in villages across the country where arsenic contamination is very acute. The hospital, with technical support from Jadavpur University, was the first to identify presence of arsenic in the country's ground water..

A surveys, funded by the UNDP, the World Bank and Jadavpur University, is attempting to determine the severity of arsenic contamination in the country.