For decades, people in West Bengal, India, have been drinking arsenic-contaminated groundwater.
The World Health Organisation has identified it as “the largest mass poisoning in history”.
The West Bengal government has installed arsenic-removal plants, but people are still drinking the poisonous groundwater, and now they’re paying the price…
Shaikh Azizur Rahman reports from West Bengal.
31-year-old Abdul Muheed lives in North 24 Paraganas district, one of the nine districts in West Bengal severely affected by arsenic.
He has skin lesions all over his body, a sign of skin cancer caused by long-term arsenic contamination.
“We did not know what arsenic was or how it damages the body. For long years we drank arsenic-laced water. Now we have come to know how arsenic has entered our body through water and is slowly killing us.”
It takes years for arsenic to show its toll on the victims.
Many people did not realise they were drinking poisonous water… until it was too late.
“Arsenic killed my father when he was 50. My brother died of cancer at the age of 26. My bed-ridden nephew is approaching death at the age of 13. At least six other people have died of arsenicosis in our village in the past few years. Nearly all villagers are carrying symptoms caused by overdose of arsenic. Arsenic lesions have appeared on my whole body."
The arsenic crisis in West Bengal started in 1960, when the government dug tens of thousands of shallow hand-tube wells for people living in rural and urban India.
For the villagers, water from shallow tube wells appeared cleaner than water from dug wells, rivers, ponds and other top open sources.
The water is used by millions of people for drinking and cooking and also in agriculture.
And, it often contains high concentrations of arsenic.
Dr Dipankar Chakraborty, director of research at the School of Environmental Studies at Javadpur University says the government has been warned.
“In 1982 a professor from School of Tropical Medicines in Kolkata found that the southern part of Kolkata is arsenic-affected. But as usual nobody took care of that. So the problem started in 1982 and began growing onwards 1992, 2002… nobody took care of it. Like fire it is increasing and increasing and increasing.”
Dr Chakraborty brought the crisis to international attention in the early 1990s with his pioneering research on arsenic in groundwater.
The problem, he says, is immense.
“If you see at this moment the total area of the arsenic-affected groundwater is 600 thousand square kilometers. And half of the population of India- about 500 million people live in this arsenic-affected area. It does not mean that all 500 million people are drinking arsenic-contaminated water but the truth remains that they all are potentially at risk.”
The World Health Organisation describes the arsenic crisis as “the largest mass poisoning in history”.
In late 1990s, the West Bengal government addressed the problem by replacing all shallow hand tube-wells with deep ones.
A move it said made the groundwater safer.
But one-third of it still contains arsenic beyond the WHO’s health limit.
“In West Bengal the problem was highlighted many times but it was not accepted by the government. But recently they have accepted it. Now the West Bengal government is telling, at this moment that 36% of West Bengal population is potentially at risk from groundwater arsenic contamination.”
Drinking arsenic water over a period of five years or more leads to arsenicosis or arsenic poisoning.
Most victims get dark or white patches on their skin. Or, their skin becomes hard.
Long exposure to arsenic increases the risk of cancer.
The West Bengal government began installing de-arsenification plants to supply clean, safe water for the people in 1998.
But within months, most of the plants had stopped working.
Kolkata-based neurologist Dr Subhash Mukherjee says the government failed to sufficiently monitor the plants.
“After installation of the plants the government did not bother for regular observation and checking of these plants. When the plants stopped working, they did not send any team to rectify them or to take other remedial measures in the remote villages. So for the villagers there was no other alternative than to take arsenic-contaminated water."
With a new governemnt in power, authorities are reluctant to speak about the arsenic crisis.
Dr Charaborty has alerted the new government but it is yet to respond.
Until now, people are silently dying as they continue to consume arsenic-contaminated groundwater.
Activists point out that awareness about arsenic poisoning is very low.
Shakuntala Ghosh, a housewife in North 24 Paraganas district, is still using groundwater for everyday household use.
“We cook with and drink water from the tube well in front of our house. We have not noticed any problem at our home as yet. We have heard that water from some tubewells in the neighbouring villages is carrying arsenic in dangerous level. However, water from our tube well has not been tested. In fact, we never felt that it was necessary to test this water for arsenic.”
Doctors say that good nutrition could fight off arsenic poisoning.
But most of the victims are poor, living in villages and urban slums and can rarely afford nutritious food.
Arzina Bibi is helping her 13-year-old son Zulfikar Ali to drink some water.
He has been suffering from blood cancer for almost a year.
Arzina Bibi says the family is too poor to take him to a special hospital.
“Doctors said we need 6 to 8 thousand US dollars for his treatment at special hospital. Since we don’t have that amount of money, we haven’t taken him to the hospital. We have not received any help from the government. We all at home are very worried about him. We are all turning sick. If the government could help us we could take him to a good hospital. The child is clinging without any medical treatment. I think soon he will die on this bed... without receiving any medical treatment."
Learn English
Vocabularies:
1) groundwater: air tanah
2) skin lesions: bagian kulit yang berbeda dengan kulit 'normal' (bercak, bintik, dll)
3) contamination: pencemaran
4) toll: dampak, akibat
5) hand-tube wells: sumur pompa tangan
6) pioneering: yang pertama, paling awal
7) immense: sangat besar
8) patches: bercak
9) sufficiently: dengan cukup/pas
10) afford: mampu
Questions:
- What are the symptoms of arsenic-contamination on people’s skins?
- How did the arsenic crisis start in West Bengal?
- What is the reaction of the people and the government about this arsenic contamination on groundwater?
- Who are most infected from arsenic poisoning?
- What can prevent people from suffering from arsenicosis?
