Arsenic Contamination of Groundwater in Bangladesh

The contamination of groundwater by arsenic is a vast and urgent public health issue for Bangladesh and West Bengal.  The problem began approximately 30 years ago when well-intentioned international aid organisations made a strong financial push to install tube wells across much of rural Bangladesh.  These efforts were motivated by the desire to reduce the outbreak of waterborne illnesses, such as diarrhoea, amebiasis, and typhoid.  In addition to these public health goals, the installation of tube wells also reduced the daily and domestic workload of the households in the regions. Tube wells saved time and labour spent to capture water at more distant sources and then transport the water to the home. Since the 1970s and 1980s, the deployment of these tube wells has been linked to several positive public health outcomes, including reductions in the outbreaks of waterborne disease epidemics and reductions in infant mortality rates.