UN: 25 million exposed to arsenic in Bangladesh

The United Nations children's agency urged governments and aid agencies Sunday to act quickly to prevent the sickening of tens of millions of Asians who are at risk of arsenic poisoning because of a lack of safe drinking water.

Odorless and tasteless, arsenic enters water supplies from natural deposits in the ground or from agricultural and industrial waste. Consuming even small amounts over a long period can cause cancer, skin problems, abnormal heart rhythms and death.

Rick Johnston, a UNICEF specialist in water, environment and sanitation, told a meeting on arsenic mitigation in the Bangladeshi capital that arsenic in drinking water already affects more than 137 million people worldwide and that a further 60 million were at high risk. Over 80 percent of them live in Asia, Johnston said.

UNICEF estimates that at least 25 million people in Bangladesh are exposed to arsenic contamination in their drinking water, Johnston said on the sidelines of the UNICEF-sponsored five-day meeting.

He said he could not estimate how many people died every year because of exposure to the chemical.

"This is a very serious issue. It needs more efforts," Johnston said.

Experts from 12 Asian countries affected by arsenic in groundwater are attending the meeting to share their knowledge and experience. They discussed how governments and aid agencies can work together to provide safe drinking water for all, Johnston said.

Millions of dollars have been spent on providing safe drinking water since arsenic was first discovered in groundwater in Bangladesh in the 1990s. Yet most people in the country of 150 million still depend on wells for their drinking water, and about 80 percent of wells in more than 8,000 Bangladeshi villages are highly contaminated, according to UNICEF.

"It is painful for me to speak of arsenic in Bangladesh, because of the scale of the problem," Carel de Rooy, who heads UNICEF in Dhaka, told the meeting.

De Rooy said Bangladesh's government needed to spend about $300 million to ensure the country meets its target of safe drinking water for all by 2011.

Bangladesh is home to UNICEF's largest arsenic mitigation program, which installs arsenic-free water points and helps the government raise awareness about the dangers of drinking groundwater and how to locate safe wells.

Bangladesh's Department of Public Health and Engineering said it would install 21,000 new arsenic-free water points over five years under a plan funded by Britain's Department for International Development.