Summary
22 March 2010
A new UN and Bangladesh government report, marking World Water Day, has found that 20 million Bangladeshis could still be drinking unsafe water almost 20 years after the problem was first discovered.
Reporter:
Mark Dummett
People in Bangladesh collecting water
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Report
The researchers found that arsenic continues to be a major threat to the good health of millions of Bangladeshis, almost two decades after the problem was first detected, despite a massive effort to provide safe drinking water.
They also found that rice, the country's staple food, can also contain potentially dangerous levels of arsenic, if the crop is irrigated with contaminated water, as happens in several parts of the country.
Ministers say that more research is needed on this and that people should not be alarmed.
Arsenic poisoning can cause cancers, heart and lung disease. It first became a problem in Bangladesh in the 1970s after the UN dug millions of new tube wells. The water that these wells tapped was contaminated with arsenic, and millions were affected in what the World Health Organisation termed 'the greatest mass poisoning in history'.
Mark Dummett, 大象传媒 News, Dhaka
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Vocabulary
- arsenic
type of very strong poison which can kill people
- major threat
serious danger
- two decades
20 years (one decade is 10 years)
- staple food
basic type of food eaten as part of most meals
- potentially dangerous
possibly harmful
- irrigated
supplied with water
- contaminated
polluted, impure or harmful
- alarmed
very worried that something bad will happen
- tube wells
deep holes in the ground where water is taken from using large pipes
- mass poisoning
many people becoming ill from being exposed to chemicals
