In 2002, the UN agency described the Bangladesh crisis as “the largest mass poisoning of a population in history”. An estimated 5% of deaths in Bangladesh are attributable to drinking water that is high in arsenic, he said. Digging deepBangladesh is the country most affected by arsenic poisoning, but naturally occurring arsenic is a problem in other parts of the world too. The government did sink tens of thousands of deep tube wells across Bangladesh but they are not concentrated in areas that need them most, said Richard Pearshouse, author of the HRW report. “A village that has 1% of its wells contaminated has as many deep tube wells as a village where 99% of its wells are contaminated,” he said.

Source: Dhaka Tribune August 28, 2017 06:56 UTC