Govt must revise its arsenic standard

It is unacceptable that the permissible amount of arsenic in drinking water in Bangladesh remains five times that of the global standard, which has been exposing people to the risk of cancer. According to the World Health Organization, the maximum permissible level of arsenic in drinking water is 0.01mg/litre. Bangladesh, however, maintains a standard of 0.05mg/litre—five times that of WHO's standard. This level is not safe for humans to consume, according to experts, especially since arsenic is carcinogenic and chronic exposure to it results in various ailments, including dermatologic issues and different types of cancer.

Since the population relies heavily on groundwater for drinking and cooking, people are being exposed to dangerous amounts of arsenic. In 2012, a bulletin of the WHO said that Bangladesh's arsenic contamination of water was the world's worst mass poisoning. That, in itself, demands serious rethinking by the government and society in general in terms of how perilous the arsenic situation has been in the country and what its long-term repercussions will be. Moreover, at least 43,000 people are estimated to die because of arsenic poisoning every year in Bangladesh, the bulletin read.

Even though the situation has improved since then, arsenic continues to remain a silent yet formidable foe for the country. Something that gives us hope is that, in the last 20 years, the number of tube wells that pump out water with excessive amounts of arsenic has halved. Meanwhile, the latest study conducted by the Department of Public Health Engineering found excessive arsenic in 14 percent tube wells across the country between 2019 and 2022. However, the survey was based on Bangladesh's standards, and experts opine that if the study was done according to the levels set by the WHO, the results would come out to be much worse. According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and Unicef's cluster survey in 2019, at least 11.8 percent of the population—17.5 million people—are exposed to arsenic even above Bangladesh's national standard of 0.05mg/litre. Such high levels of arsenic can not only affect adults but may also disrupt the normal development of a child's brain and overall health.

Despite the progress made in containing the level of arsenic in Bangladesh's drinking water over the years, impacts of climate change are expected to worsen the problem in the future. Therefore, it is high time the government revised its arsenic standard and took all-out measures to contain the problem of arsenic poisoning to prevent further health issues or, worse, deaths.