What's The Problem With Drinking Water In Bangladesh?

Bangladesh is one of the wettest countries on Earth. Surface waters there are very prone to contamination and likely to contain harmful pathogens. So not safe to drink, unless you boil it for a long spell.

In the 1970s there was a great idea to dwell small boreholes in Bangladesh, down to groundwater with low natural bacterial counts. This would provide safe drinking water for all.

Unfortunately, much of the groundwater in Bangladesh is contaminated with the toxic heavy metal, Arsenic.

What's worse, boiling the well water only concentrates the arsenic, making it even more toxic. This is very confusing for many rural ill-educated Bangladeshis, that they must boil surface water to make it safe, but they must NOT boil well water.

Various things are being done to try to help Bangladeshis find safe drinking water. Shallower wells have less arsenic in them than deep ones, probably because they have had less time to concentrate the arsenic. Testing regimes are being implemented to find wells with safe levels of arsenic, but testing must be done at least annually to be sure that a well is still okay.

In the meantime, health and economic impacts have been severe.

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