For decades, Bangladesh has been living in the midst of an environmental crisis. But unlike disasters like cyclones, floods and earthquakes, which occur abruptly and dominate the headlines, this one is slow, insidious and rarely makes the news. Yet it is no less deadly.

The presence of arsenic in water drawn from wells has led to what the World Health Organization calls “the largest mass poisoning of a population in history.”

According to WHO estimates, as many as one in five deaths in Bangladesh are caused by arsenic poisoning;  as many as 77 million people – nearly half the population - have been exposed to it.

Yet, ironically, the problem first sprang from the best of intentions.

Even though the country is located on the world’s largest river delta, its river water is rarely fit to drink. There are little or no purification systems to serve the vast majority of the population, who still live in villages.

Because of this lack of clean water, Bangladesh had one of the world’s highest infant mortality rates.

In response, in the 1970s, aid agencies such as UNICEF began to advocate digging deep wells to extract water. Infant mortality and diarrheal illness duly plummeted.

But for several more years, no one realized that much of the water that came from this depth – between 20m and 100m below the surface - was heavily laden with natural arsenic, a deadly powerful poison.

With some agencies reluctant to admit that a problem even existed, it was not fully acknowledged until the mid 1990s. When investigations finally began, they revealed some stark statistics: in 61 of the country’s 64 civil districts, arsenic was found in the water.

The government took action by painting wells red if they were proven to contain dangerous levels of it.

“In our area, 102 out of a total of 109 tube wells were marked unsafe,” says Firoz Ali from the village of Taranagar, in the southwest’s Meherpur district. “Some villagers have died. I don’t know what is in my destiny.”

But most people still have no alternative sources of free, fresh water. “At least 22 million people are still without an arsenic-free water supply,” says Sudhir Kumar Ghosh, of the Department of Public Health Engineering.

Meanwhile, the campaign to eradicate the problem has made little progress.

Amena Begum, a housewife from the northwestern Natore district,  became alarmed by an outbreak of rashes on her hands and legs, five years ago. Her worry turned to fear when they started swelling and bruising.

“I went to the local health center and they told me it was most probably an effect of drinking arsenic contaminated water,” she says. “But there’s no health service in the area that can help me recover.

“The demarcation of some of the tube wells with red paint was the only government initiative I’ve come across.”

Professor Ainun Nishat, a water resources expert, confirms that the  campaign against arsenic contamination has slowed almost to a standstill.

“The arsenic issue is much neglected in Bangladesh today. There are a few NGOs working on it, but the government has no specific project,” he says.

“A national committee was formed during the tenure of the former government. But it has not been functional, due to lack of interest from the present government.”

Professor Nishat agrees with other experts that in many areas, clean water could be secured relatively simply, by digging wells to a deeper level where the earth is free of arsenic deposits.

“Under our ‘special water supply’ scheme, we are drilling thousands of tube wells to a depth of 250 feet per year,” says Sudhir Kumar Ghosh.

But this is not enough. Without major investment, the goal of clean water for all will simply not be realized. “People in rural areas can’t afford deep wells to keep away from arsenic. They need support,” says Caritas officer Pintu Gomes.

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