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“If
there is no mangrove forests, then the sea will have no meaning.
It is like having a tree without roots, for the mangroves are the
roots of the sea." - a fisherman on the coast of the
Andaman Sea.
The Sundarbans is the largest contiguous block of mangrove forest
remaining in the present day world. Along the mouth of the Bay of
Bengal, it extends over 10,000 square kilometres in Bangladesh and
India. Some 60 percent of the forest lies in Bangladesh and the
rest in the Indian state of West Bengal. Said to be named after
its maiden Sundari tree species, the Sundarbans is a globally significant
ecosystem rich in bio-diversity providing habitat for around 334
plant and 453 animal species, including the world famous Royal Bengal
Tiger. Several critically endangered species like rare sharks also
find refuge in this forest containing Sundari, Gewa, Goran, Keora,
Passur, Baen and many other trees and plants.
Besides its ecological value, more than four million people
who live around the Sundarbans derive part of their subsistence
extracting resources including fisheries, fuelwood, and non-wood
forest products like honey. Livelihood of million others also indirectly
depends upon this rich forest.
Every year a good number of tidal surges hit Bangladesh's
south and southwestern coastline and the Sundarbans bears the brunt
acting as a vital barrier against all such calamitous lashings of
the nature to protect the country's southwestern coastlines including
the regional towns and cities like Mongla and Khulna.
What is mangrove forest
"One perceives a forest of jagged, gnarled trees
protruding from the surface of the sea, roots anchored in deep,
black, foul-smelling mud, verdant crowns arching toward a blazing
sun...Here is where the land and sea intertwine, where the line
dividing the ocean and continent blurs, in this setting the marine
biologist and the forest ecologist both must work at the extreme
reaches of their disciplines." That was how the Scientific
American, a US specialised journal, described the mangrove forest
in its March 1996 issue.
Growing in the inter-tidal areas and estuary mouths between
land and sea, mangroves, able to tolerate saline water, provide
critical habitat for a diverse marine and terrestrial flora and
fauna. Healthy mangrove forests are key to a healthy marine ecology.
World's largest mangrove forest
The main feature of the Sundarbans, which is likely to mesmerize
a lone tourist, is its unique silence. Without doubt, one's first
impression of the dense forest will be its great silence. Forest
creatures are very shy, but as the visitor picks his way along the
trail or the water bodies around, which occupy one third of the
Sundarbans Reserve Forest (SRF), he will realise how alive it is.
Numerous living organisms are discreetly watching and waiting whilst
one passes through their protective home. From time to time, the
complete tranquillity will be shattered by a darting forest bird
or a group of noisy monkeys jumping through the trees, disturbing
the secretive residents and setting up a chain reaction when the
ever-wary forest comes to a colourful and boisterous life for a
moment, until silence reigns again.
Mangroves across the world are not particularly diverse in
terms of their floristic composition, especially compared with rainforest
ecosystems. While up to 75 species are recognised as genuine mangrove
plants, the floristic composition of the Sundarbans is made up of
60 plus species. According to International Union for Conservation
of Nature (IUCN) no other mangrove ecological niche in the world
offers such a variety of associate mangrove vegetation as the Sundarbans
does.
Despite large scale indiscriminate felling of trees due to
management problems, the natural regeneration process has kept the
SRF alive and growing all the time. While all other forests in the
world are being more and more technically managed and their soil
productivity, regeneration of plants, reproduction of wildlife are
controlled and monitored regularly as they are tending to lose their
erstwhile individual characteristics, the SRF is continuing to evolve
new and newer bio-geo-chemical cycles. However, it is also clear
that the well-defined boundaries of rivers and canals and perhaps
the presence of widely feared what the locals traditionally refer
to as "maternal uncle" (the Royal Bengal Tiger) have added
significantly to protecting the forest.
Ecology of the Sundarbans
The Sundarbans soil is characterized as moderately to slightly
saline zone in the east and highly saline zone in the west. Its
ecosystem is characterised by a very dynamic environment due to
the effect of tide, flooding, salinity and even the cyclones. The
fragile and intricate mangrove ecosystem depends on many variable
components like tides, salt contents in water and soil, duration
of sunlight, contents of sediment and organic matter in water, temperature
and density of seawater and fresh water. The composition of terrestrial
and marine flora and fauna also plays an important role in the mangrove
ecosystem. If sun is regarded as the source of all energy flow,
water must be considered as the nursing mother of an ecosystem.
World's largest mangrove forest under threat
Mangrove forests are one of the most productive and bio-diverse
wetlands on earth. Yet, these unique coastal tropical forests are
among the most threatened habitats in the world as experts' fear
they may disappear more quickly than inland tropical rainforests
because of lack of public notice. The Sundarbans too is no exception.
Most experts agree that due to direct and indirect impact
of human interventions, far-reaching changes are taking place slowly
but steadily -- affecting the delicate Sundarbans ecosystem. Much
of such changes are not clearly visible. Direct human impacts are
further worsened by the less-readily detected but perhaps more menacing
impacts which threaten the mangrove ecosystem. Massive changes in
both the adjacent agricultural lands and upstream areas with construction
of polders, embankments or barrages are feared to have been generating
fundamental changes in the hydrological regime of the Sundarbans.
The changes in freshwater flushing are visibly caused by
gradual eastward shift of the flow of the Ganges River. The change
is acknowledged as being historical in nature although the more
recent impact of the Farakka Barrage in India and subsequent siltation
in the Gorai is accelerating the process. It is believed that the
changes affecting the salinity, flood intensity and periodicity,
erosion, siltation and sedimentations may all be factors for perplexing
and worrisome loss to the world's largest mangrove system.
A number of species like Javan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus),
water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis), swamp deer (Cervus duvauceli),
gaur (Bos gaurus), hog deer (Axis porcinus) and marsh crocodile
(Crocodilus palustris) became extinct during the last 100 years
from the Sundarbans.
The Royal Bengal Tiger is an inseparable part of the legend
attached to the Sundarbans. The tidal mangrove forest is a rare
habitat for this tiger species. But today they have been pushed
due to habitat shrinkage. The SRF tiger population estimate in the
past 20 years remained in the range of 350 to 400, the largest discrete
population of the species in a single tract of natural habitat in
the world.
But the preservation of the Royal Bengal Tigers is, by far,
the most important challenge for those concerned for the protection
of Sundarbans bio-diversity.
Incidental mortality due to diseases, illegal hunting and
subtle changes in the Sundarbans ecosystem poses a serious risk
for the survival of the Royal Bengal Tiger. Apart from that, the
interaction with humans in the area, particularly the killing of
humans by tiger, complicates the management of the area. IUCN has
listed it as an endangered species in its Red Book.
The marsh crocodiles, once abundant, are already extirpated.
The salt-water crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) still survives in
low densities and like the marsh crocodiles its population is being
reduced through indiscriminate hunting and trapping for skins, quite
apart from the immediate conflict with men. Despite an apparent
reduction in illegal trade in its skin, the population shows little
sign of recovery.
Some 30 species of snakes have been recorded in the SRF and
there appears to have been a general decline in densities or at
least in their sighting particularly in the past two decades. The
Rock Python (Python molurus) is one of the valuable SRF snake species,
which is said to have declined over recent years. IUCN has listed
it as a "vulnerable species."
The results of four independent inventories undertaken over
the past seventy years indicate that the overall volume of wood
per hectare has decreased. Moreover, closer analysis of three inventories
undertaken in 1959, 1983 and 1996 indicate a marked reduction in
total standing volume for the two principal species of economic
importance, Sundari and Gewa.
According to studies carried out at different times by the
forest department, British ODA and UNDP/FAO sponsored Forest Resource
Management Plan, the mean volume per hectare of the Sundari tree
was 34.5 in 1959. The volume was reduced to 19.9 in 1983 and 17.8
in 1996. In case of Gewa, the mean volume per hectare was 8.7 in
1959, which was reduced to 4.6 in 1983, and 2.1 in 1996. The dramatic
decrease is blamed on their over exploitation, legally and illegally,
because of their commercial value and subtle changes in the ecosystem.
A number of issues related to the Sundari, Gewa and Goran trees
have emerged for immediate concerns of the foresters.
According to experts, the reasons for the decline in Sundari
(Heriteria fomes) are twofold. First, as a valuable timber species
with real commercial value, it has been subject to heavy exploitation.
Second, increasing salinity as a subsequent impact of the subtle
ecological changes, noticeable increase in salinity and siltation
have resulted in hostile anaerobic conditions in which the Sundari
finds it difficult for healthy respiration. This has resulted in
die back whereby the tree is progressively defoliated from the top
downwards. The phenomenon, in fact an infectious disease, is called
"top dying." The infectious top-dying disease of Sundari
causes another management problem as experts said poor execution
of infected trees invalidates the basic rationale for the "sanitation/salvage"
method to save the uninfected trees. Long delays between marking
and cutting causes more trees in an area affected by top dying eventually
exposing them to "axes instead of saws."
With regard to Gewa, forest officials say high pressure from
deer populations in some areas of forest patches have caused nil
regeneration of the species, leaving the areas under-stocked. The
decline in Gewa (Excoecaria agallocha) is largely attributable to
harvesting of around 50,000 m3 per annum as feedstock to Khulna
Newsprint Mill for the production of newsprint over the years.
Experts say there is apparently little respect for the basic
rule of leaving one stout stem to aid re-growth while cutting Goran
trees, the second largest tree species of the SRF as all available
merchantable stems are being cut from one area. However, acknowledging
the importance of forest resources exploitation on a sustainable
basis, the Forest Department imposed a logging moratorium in 1989
on all timber species except Gewa in the SRF.
Many factors contribute to mangrove forest loss, including
the charcoal and timber industries, legal and illegal logging, oil
spill, tourism industries, unplanned development projects, urban
growth pressures, and mounting pollution problems. However, one
of the most recent and significant causes of mangrove forest loss
in the past decade has been the consumer demand for luxury shrimp,
or "prawns", and the corresponding expansion of destructive
production methods of export-oriented industrial shrimp aquaculture
along the forests.
No discussion of the ecology of the SRF would be complete
without noting the problem of water pollution. Pollution from various
sources is a major determinant of water quality -- both in riverine
and coastal areas of the Sundarbans. As approximately one third
of the nearly 600,000 hectares of the Sundarbans area consists of
tidal channels, and most of the reminder is subject to periodic
inundation, impacts of water pollution are potentially very widespread.
The main threat today may come from outside the area in the
form of pollution. On the northern edge of the area, Mongla, Bangladesh'
second seaport, is situated. This port and its associated marine
traffic is a frequent source of oil spills and there is a permanent
risk of accidents with chemicals. Moreover, toxic products (pesticides,
etc.) and urban wastes enter the system due to upstream pollution
in the huge Ganges catchment. Pollution may not be a direct source
of mortality, but it may also reduce the health of the forests,
increasing the mortality rate of the flora and fauna on the long
term. Many products such as pesticides have also been proved to
reduce the reproductively (birth rate) in animal populations.
Almost all Khulna-based industries like the match factories,
fish processing plants, jute mills, steel mills, the Khulna Shipyard
and newspaper mills discharge liquid or solid wastes directly into
the Bhairab-Rupsha river system.
A very densely populated area surrounds the SRF. Around 1.2
million local users reside seasonally in the area for fishing and
other resource use activities. Commercial hunting was a problem
mainly before the 1970s and this resulted particularly in a serious
depletion of the crocodile populations and to a lesser extent to
the deer population. Although wildlife protection has improved significantly
in the last decades, illegal hunting is still occurring on an incidental
basis and fishery is having an adverse impact on the remaining turtle
and crocodile populations as these animals are frequently caught
up in fishing nets.
Due to natural processes the role of the Sundarbans to discharge
the water of the Ganges and Brahmaputra catchment is decreasing
as main waterways are shifting eastwards. As a result, the salinity
of the Sundarbans is increasing -- particularly in the western region.
Further, the total annual discharge is decreasing due to intensifying
land use (dams, irrigation) upstream. The role of this change is
not yet clear, but is evident that it will influence wildlife populations
and vegetation in the long term.
The expanding shrimp farming in the greater Khulna region
has caused wide concerns for the rich bio-diversity of the Sundarbans.
Experts say indiscriminate shrimp and salt cultivation already destroyed
the valuable mangrove forest in Chokoria Sundarbans and fear that
the ecosystem of the SRF too would be in jeopardy for the same reason
in the near future. The fisheries department reckons that some 200
billion different fish fries are destroyed every year in course
of gathering two billion shrimp fries from the water bodies along
the Sundarbans due to the crude methods adopted for the purpose.
Observers believe that the environmental and social losses would
eventually eclipse profits from the shrimp sector.
Forest department officials admit that though slowly far-reaching
changes are taking place pervasively in the Sundarbans. These arise
from direct and indirect impacts of human influence in the area
causing widespread quantitative and qualitative degradation of the
resource base throughout the Sundarbans eco-system. According to
forest inventory, it is clear that the level of illicit takeoff,
some purely illegal and some quasi-sanctioned, may be quite larger
than what could be scientifically justified for sustainable management
of the SRF.
Consequence of mangrove deforestation
In many areas of the world, mangrove deforestation is contributing
to fisheries declines, degradation of clean water supplies, salinization
of coastal soils, erosion, and land subsidence, as well as the release
of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In fact, mangrove forests
fix more carbon dioxide per unit area than phytoplankton in tropical
oceans.
With regard to the Sundarbans, experts have sounded caution
that destruction of the forest will not only affect the ecology
but cause far reaching impacts on national economy and causing immense
damage to the marine resources of the Bay of Bengal, still economically
unexplored and unexploited by Bangladesh. The loss of the Sundarbans
would also expose the entire southwestern region of the country
to frequent cyclones and tidal surges.
Mangrove forests once covered three-fourths of the coastlines
of tropical and sub-tropical countries. Today, less than 50 percent
of that is surviving. And then again, of this remaining mangrove
forests, over 50 percent has been degraded and not in good form.
Greater protection measures should be taken for maintaining high
quality mangrove forests like the Sundarbans -- a World Heritage
Site.
Pinjira has
lost her battle with arsenic. Sofura is missing. Zahangir is knocked
down. Kamal Hossain’s dream has been shattered. The tragic stories
of thousands of innocent victims of mass poisoning of arsenic contamination
have been hitting the headlines of national and international media
for the last couple of years. The problem of arsenic pollution in
Bangladesh’s ground water has turned into a problem of unprecedented
proportion. Millions of people in rural Bangladesh have been exposed
to the risk of arsenic poisoning.
At the end of the year 2001, the deadly arsenic has also
threatened the living of thousands of people of 28 municipalities.
The number of patients seriously affected by arsenic from drinking
water has now risen to thousands. In early 1996, arsenic contamination
of groundwater was reported first in Bagerhat, Satkhira and Kushtia,
three south-western Bangladesh districts bordering the Indian state
of West Bengal. Some 61 out of 64 districts across the country (FEJB,
1998) face the menace of arsenic poisoning.
The Ministry of Health during the Awami League (1996-2001)
regime was served with the alarming news that groundwater in adjacent
rural areas around the capital city of Dhaka was contaminated by
arsenic. Health and Family Welfare Minister of the then AL government,
Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, said that his ministry had diagnosed
8,500 arsenic patients in the country. Incumbent LGRD Minister Abdul
Mannan Bhuiyan and Health Minister Dr. Khondker Mosharraf Hossain
informed that the number of arsenic patients crossed the 10,000-mark.
In end of 2001, Bangladeshi officials admitted that some
80 million people — more than 65 per cent of the country’s population
— live in the arsenic-contaminated areas. Thousands of crowded villages
with their golden paddy fields and steamy banana groves are threatened
by poisoned water. Due to the sheer magnitude of the catastrophe,
a resource-poor nation like Bangladesh is now struggling, not quite
successfully, to cope with the problem caused by arsenic-contaminated
tubewells in the rural areas. Of late, there have been efforts to
mitigate the woes of the arsenic-hit villagers through distribution
of water filtration devices. The authorities are seeking an easy
solution to tackle this latest environmental hazard.
The authorities are ill-equipped both financially and technically
to deal with the massive problem. They have been at a loss how to
deal with its fallout. The government launched a campaign to create
awareness among the public about the hazards of drinking arsenic-contaminated
water and issued warnings through radio and television. A National
Arsenic Committee was formed to address the problem. But efforts
to tackle the situation have to be far more widespread and intense.
Most of rural Bangladesh has been caught up in an arsenic panic.
Arsenic is a white, semi-metallic powder found in nature.
Some of its compounds —arsenite and arsenate — are highly toxic
and can cause skin cancer, kidney and liver failure, respiratory
problems, and in extreme cases, death. Other symptoms include dark
brown spots on the body, thickening of the skin of the palms and
feet, and warts on hands and legs. Colourless, tasteless and naturally
occurring in the sub-soils, arsenic has been seeping into the region’s
groundwater for years. Some experts say that arsenic beneath Bangladesh’s
fertile river delta was probably deposited long ago after being
washed down from the ores in the Himalayas. For long, the arsenic
compounds called arsenic sulphides were submerged in groundwater
and remained inert. But with the advent of intensive irrigation
in the 1960s, the aquifers started to drop, exposing the poisons
to oxygen for the first time. Once oxidised, arsenic sulphides become
water-soluble. They percolate from the sub-soils into the water
tables during every monsoon flood like drops of tea seeping from
a tea bag.
Late Amjad Hussain Khan, a Bangladeshi water expert, reportedly
observed in 1997 that the arsenic contamination had originated in
the Indian state of West Bengal bordering Bangladesh — particularly
on the eastern side of the Ganges-Bhagirathi rivers. The deadly
poison then slowly seeped into Bangladesh’s groundwater. He said
that the western border districts, specially the southern-western
region of Bangladesh, were particularly vulnerable to arsenic contamination
. The reason is that the sediments on both sides of the border have
the same depositional history and geological environment— the region
being commonly known as the Ganges delta. Khan said that the aquifer
of the contaminated zones in West Bengal and that of the areas within
Bangladesh were hydrologically connected. He further observed that
the groundwater of the region along the south-western border belt
of Bangladesh is highly vulnerable to arsenic contamination.
The first reports of arsenic contamination of water appeared
in 1978 in West Bengal. The initial theories blamed arsenic pollution
blamed on the use of insecticides and pesticides, metal strainers
in industrial effluents, etc. But, subsequent studies proved such
theories to be wrong. The School of Environmental Studies [SOES],
Jadavpur University, near Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal, started
investigation in 1988 when reports of sporadic cases of arsenic
poisoning began to appear in West Bengal. The study said that for
centuries a 450-kilometre stretch of arsenic has been deposited
in rich silt clay some 70 to 200 feet below the surface in an area
covering about 35,000 square kilometres. The problem did not surface
until the 1970s when the farmers in West Bengal began tapping huge
amounts of groundwater to irrigate their summer crops, thus triggering
chemical changes in the soil composition.
Scientists now advise that if a catastrophe is to be averted,
pumping of groundwater must be reduced and farmers should increasingly
try to tap surface water for irrigation. As the water table falls,
pyrites — a mineral which holds arsenic — begins to oxidise and
exude the poison, contaminating thousands of shallow tube-wells.
Bangladesh is now threatened by mass poisoning that endangers
the lives of millions of people not only in rural areas but also
in some urban areas like municipalities.
In June 2000, the Dhaka-based National Institute of Preventive
and Social Medicine (NIPSOM) tested some 1000 samples of tubewell
water in 17 rural districts. And it found arsenic in at least 180
such samples. Arsenic toxicity in the water of the affected districts
is 25 to 35 times higher the safety level set by the World Health
Organisation (WHO). The permissible level of arsenic in water is
0.05 ppm, according to experts. The Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission
found the level of arsenic between 1.5 and 2 ppm in tube-well water
in the districts bordering West Bengal. The situation was so bad
that an even more dangerous level of arsenic toxicity was found
in the water of a tube-well in the village home of the then incumbent
Health Minister late Salauddin Yusuf, in Khulna, which is not far
from the border with India. During 2001, the number of arsenic poisoned
tube-wells was on the rise, creating a panic across Bangladesh.
The Dhaka Community Hospital [DCH] has been conducting research
on the arsenic situation. Their investigation revealed that the
number of arsenic-affected people also kept rising. Public health
has been in jeopardy in areas where arsenic poisoning is extensive.
The DCH conducted its research on arsenic poisoning among residents
in four villages under the Ishwardi Police Station in Pabna district,
eight villages and localities in Kushtia district and in one village
in Meherpur district. Specimens of skin, nails, hair and urine of
53 suspected arsenic victims were collected and tested. Arsenic
was found in the urine of 94.34 per cent, in the nails of 8.12 per
cent and in the skin of 100 per cent of the suspected victims. Besides,
in separate tests, arsenic was found in the urine of 90 per cent
of suspected arsenic victims. Ten persons were chosen for urine,
21 for nails and 11 for skin tests.
Tests of water samples collected from the arsenic-infected
areas of the country contained more than the normal percentage of
arsenic. Twenty-eight per cent of the affected people had more than
100 to 1500 per cent more arsenic than the normal level in their
urine, 47 per cent had 8 to 20 per cent more than the normal level
in their nails and 98 per cent had 100 to 15,000 per cent more than
the normal level of arsenic in their skin! Twenty per cent of the
water samples contained amounts of arsenic, which were more than
100 to 900 per cent more than the allowable quantity. The DCH tested
920 patients suffering from skin diseases, of whom 150 were suspected
to have been suffering from arsenic poisoning. Samples of urine,
nails, hair and skin were collected from 95 of some 105 patients.
Water samples from 41 tube-wells were also collected from the arsenic-affected
areas. These samples were examined at the Bangladesh Council for
Scientific and Industrial Research [BCSIR].
Thousands of people of 28 municipalities of the country are
drinking arsenic-contaminated water from pipeline water supply system,
a recent study has revealed.
Earlier, it was believed that the wells including the deep
tubewells in the municipalities posed no threat to public health
since they were safe. The tests carried out by the Dhaka Community
Hospital (DCH) were done between January and September 2001.
The municipalities include the hill district of Rangamati
where, until now, experts ruled out possibilities of finding arsenic
even at low concentration. Laboratory tests of water samples collected
from the municipalities revealed that all of them including those
from privately owned wells contained at least 0.03 milligram per
litre arsenic or three times the acceptable level (0.01 mg/L) for
human consumption. For Bangladesh, the highest level of arsenic
in drinking water is 0.05mg/L.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), long-term
consumption of arsenic can cause various skin diseases. Experts
studying some arsenic patients have concluded that long-term exposure
to arsenic through drinking can lead to cancer in the bladder, intestine
and even lungs.
So far, official surveys in only 500 villages have found
over 10,000 arsenic patients suffering from various forms of ailments
including cancer related to arsenic poisoning.
The DCH study found the highest concentration of 0.199 mg/L
arsenic in a deep tube-well in Gopalganj town that supplies water
to more than 12,000 inhabitants. The second highest concentration
was found in another Gopalganj town deep tube-well supplying water
to more than 10,000 people. This one has an arsenic concentration
of 0.177 mg/L.
However, according to sources, none of the deep tubewells
with high concentration of arsenic has so far been shut down. The
urban areas from where water samples were collected are Barisal,
Brahmanbaria, Chapainawabganj, Chittagong, Chuadanga, Cox’s Bazar,
Dhaka, Dinajpur, Habiganj, Jessore, Jhenidah, Khulna, Kishoreganj,
Kushtia, Laxmipur, Magura, Manikganj, Moulvibazar, Munshiganj, Narail,
Natore, Pabna, Rajshahi, Rangamati, Rangpur and Sylhet.
The eight districts where the DPHE has taken alternative
measures to remove arsenic are Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj, Chuadanga,
Satkhira, Meherpur, Faridpur, Noakhali and Gopalganj.
Until recently, government and non-government agencies have
tested water in rural areas. So far, 61 of 64 districts are found
affected by arsenic. According to the latest data, 85 million people
in the affected areas are at risk of drinking arsenic contaminated
water.
As the mysterious sores first appeared on the work-toughened
palms of Anil Chandra Das, a rice farmer in the southwestern Nowapara
area, he kept grizzling in pain but just ignored it. But the lesions
did not go away. Instead, the small purplish scabs on his palms
began cracking and bleeding. Then the headaches started, accompanied
by chest congestion and stomach cramps. And finally, in March, 1997
the man — whose neighbours remember him for his breezy story-telling
— died.
“He just lay in bed all day and we looked into his eyes.
Then one day he didn’t open his eyes any more. And we all began
to cry,” said Ila Rani Das, 16, Anil’s daughter. Fighting her tears,
Ila recalled how her eldest brother, Shamyal, 20, died in August,
the same year, of the same grim symptoms. She held out her palms,
the purple sores were also there. She is not alone; there are thousands
of others like her in the length and breadth of the country, silently
suffering from the aliments caused by the deadly arsenic.
Arsenic’s social fallout has been enormous. Amina Begum,
35, a victim who developed dark brown spots on her skin, was socially
shunned by her neighbours. Girls with such spots are unable to find
husbands, married women showing signs of arsenic poisoning are often
sent back to their parents by their in-laws, and young men suffering
from arsenic-related ailments are simply refused jobs in rural areas.
Abdus Samad lost both his home and social status due to arsenic.
“My parents told me one day to leave home when I fell sick,”
recalled Samad, a sad wiry young man of Noapara, whose hands and
feet were still covered with sores even months after undergoing
treatment and drinking safe, arsenic-free water.
Banished by his family, Samad and his wife built a tin-roofed
hut on the remote edge of his parental homestead. “Everybody thinks
it might be contagious — like leprosy,” Samad said bitterly. “I
have to wash my plates with boiled water after every meal I take
— uselessly, for nothing!” he grumbled.
Rasheda K.Chowdhury, chairperson of the Environment and Development
Alliance, said the life of the entire rural community had been affected
by the arsenic catastrophe. She emphasised the need for intensifying
the government and non-government measures to tackle the hazard
of arsenic poisoning that experts say has no equal in medical history.
Since arsenic poisoning often takes months or years to become
lethal or debilitating, it can be easily misdiagnosed. If diagnosed
early, patients can be relieved of mild symptoms by switching to
pure, arsenic-free water. Continued exposure to contaminated water
can be fatal. Kits that can filter the water to make it arsenic-free
cost about US $ 18 — almost a month’s income for many in Bangladesh.
The means to pipe in clean water could cost millions and take years
to build the network.
The new government of Begum Khaleda Zia has
already declared arsenic problem as one of its 100-day agenda for
action. LGRD Minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan said a preliminary survey
to identify arsenic-affected patients was conducted in different
rural districts of Bangladesh. He said instructions had been given
to the Department of Public Health and Engineering to supply arsenic-free
water to the affected areas. Besides, he said, instructions had
been given to test the tube-well water locally in every district.
He suggested that grassroots level people should be involved in
arsenic mitigation programmes.
Stressing the need for undertaking preventive measures against
arsenic toxicity, Dr. A.Z.M. Iftikhar Hossain, deputy programme
manager of the Arsenic Mitigation Project, said his department had
already developed a filter to purify arsenic-contaminated water.
There is no definite cure for arsenic poisoning, but uncontaminated
water and nutritious food over a period of time nurture sufferers
back to health. Unfortunately, there are few alternative water supplies
in the affected districts and most of the people in the rural areas
cannot afford nutritious food.
Dr. Mujibul Huq, head of Dermatology Department, Dhaka Medical
College Hospital, said that arsenic-affected patients can be cured
by proper medication and access to pure drinking water. But it is
important to take advice from the experts at the early stage. Medicine
was scarce and steps were taken to make them available, he added.
Experts underscored the need for adopting a national strategy
for mitigating the arsenic problem. United efforts by the government,
non-government organisations (NGOs) and donors are needed to face
the challenge of arsenic contamination to which some 80 million
people are exposed.
“At least 80 million people of the country are affected by
arsenic, a silent killer, and one in ten has the possibility of
developing cancer from the poisoning, “ said Dr. Kazi Kamruzzaman,
chairman of the Dhaka Community Hospital (DCH). He regretted that
policy-makers are yet to include arsenic in the syllabus for medical
education in the country. He was critical of the government for
not including the problem in its 3.3 billion dollar Health and Population
Sector Programme (HPSP) and the donors for their non-specific programmes
to tackle it.
Dr. Imamul Huq of the Soil Science Department of Dhaka University,
quoting from his study report said there is a “mentionable amount
of arsenic in rice crops and leafy vegetables in Bangladesh”.
Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA) President Dr. Rashid-e-Mahbub
said the methods developed by donor agencies to free drinking water
from arsenic were not effective. “These are ineffective toys”, he
observed. Members of FEJB called for creating public awareness about
the problem and stressed the need for community participation to
remove it.
They also called upon all concerned to take immediate steps
to discover and provide alternative sources of drinking water to
save the people from the deadly poisoning. They felt the need for
treatment and rehabilitation of arsenic patients on a priority basis.
The FEJB members observed that out of 110 million deep tubewells
in the country, more than 50,000 were contaminated with excessive
amounts of arsenic.
Noted water expert Dr. Ainun Nishat said the government should
frame a clear-cut policy for sinking new tubewells. People cannot
be barred from taking drinking water from red-marked tubewells as
they become confused after seeing sinking of new tubewells near
the old (red-marked) ones, Dr. Nishat said.
With 61 out of 64 districts affected and 264 upazilas being
the most affected, it is believed that at least 26 million people
are at risk of contacting arsenicosis. Because, the people themselves
with the help of private sector installed most of the tube-wells
and so there are no records of how many wells exit. The estimate
is between 6-10 million. If the current national pace of testing
output cannot be improved, it will take 6-8 years just to test all
of the existing tube-wells, observed an expert.
There is no pattern to arsenic contamination of groundwater.
One well in a village may be safe while another well 100 yards away
may be contaminated over the currently nationally prescribed safe
level of 50ppb. And the one after that may again be safe! Therefore,
the only way to know if a tube-well is providing safe water or not
is to test every tube-well. The contamination of tubewells may change
over time and so, people will at some point need to have access
to local testing facilities so that they can regularly check the
level of contamination in their wells. This facility presently does
not exist.
There is still no clear medical understanding as to why some
members of a family contact arsenicosis while others do not, even
though they drink the same water. At what time and in what circumstances
will people contact arsenicosis? What is the risk factor related
to the onset of gangrene and cancer? There are no clear answers
to these issues till date.
There is a growing possibility that arsenic may be entering the
food chain through contaminated irrigation water. This may have
an effect not only on the food being eaten (which may eventually
have adverse impact on the economy of the farming community), but
also on the ability of the soil to produce crops in a country which
has reached self sustainability in food production.
While arsenicosis is not a contagious disease, it often appears
to be — to the affected rural communities. There are instances where
affected children, having the raindrop pattern, kurtosis and melanomas
symptoms on their skin, are being asked to leave school. Parents
are deserting their families. Marriage prospects for the affected
youth may be severely hampered.
In the advanced stages, people may suffer amputation as a
result of gangrene or cancer, severely affecting the chances of
earning or sustaining a livelihood. If at some point, soil is found
to be contaminated and food production becomes unmarketable, it
would have far-reaching implications in the socio-economic sector
and national development.
At present, figures suggest 12,000 recorded cases of arsenicosis
in the country. Some experts say that at this moment, there could
be two million people in the pre-arsenicosis stage. What has been
detected at this time could well be only the tip of an iceberg.
There is really no time to lose.
This problem calls for a two-pronged approach; an emergency
testing and awareness creation in the first place, followed by a
second stage of a community based and sustainable set of activities.
The Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE),and NGOs
are working to develop and implement a four-part community-based
and integrated arsenic mitigation programme.
It is widely believed that action should be carried out on
an emergency basis to undertake countrywide testing. The aim will
be to identify not only those sources which are contaminated but
also the ones which are safe.
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