Medical journal The Lancet backs HRW report on arsenic in Bangladesh, calls for urgent action

The journal that influences global public health polices has backed the Human Rights Watch (HRW) report on Bangladesh’s arsenic situation.

It has termed the report an “urgent wake-up call” for all players in the country’s rural water supply.

The Lancet wrote an editorial on Friday titled ‘Bangladesh’s rural water scandal’ after the New York-based NGO’s report released on Wednesday.

The report accused the government of failing to “adequately respond” to the arsenic problem that ‘kills estimated 43,000 people’ each year.

Local Government and Rural Development Minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, however, rejected the report calling it ‘baseless.’

He also hinted at taking legal action if the NGO ‘keeps pushing the matter’.

The Lancet says the report is an urgent wake-up call for all players in Bangladesh's rural water supply, and for other governments and donor agencies focused on water and sanitation, where arsenic contamination may be a public-health threat.

“For Bangladesh, the report highlights the need for a renewed and sustained arsenic mitigation campaign”.

“This will require an independent body to oversee service implementation by government, especially in its engineering and health departments; for donor agencies, funding needs to be closely monitored and followed through”.

“Until all of Bangladesh's citizens have access to safe water, their right to health will remain scandalously denied,” the UK journal commented.

Arsenic occurs naturally underground in parts of Bangladesh, and its contamination of rural water supplies first came to public attention more than two decades ago.

Since then, the government has collaborated with the donors agencies to mitigate a growing water contamination crisis.

One focus was on the installation of thousands of deep tube wells that source water far below the shallower levels where traces of arsenic are often found.

The Lancet says the HRW report paints a grim picture of villagers scarred with skin lesions, almost certainly caused by arsenic contaminated water; of neglected tube wells not being regularly checked for contamination, and an absence of arsenic screening or treatment programmes from local health facilities.

The report detailed a 2013 national survey of drinking water and said around 20 million people were still consuming water with arsenic concentrations above 50 μg/L, Bangladesh's safe water threshold.

The Lancet says “shockingly” the report also provides evidence of how the positioning of deep tube wells can sometimes represent a political manoeuvring by local government officials keen to garner support in a particular district.

This is contrary to the prioritisation of safe water provision in the areas at greatest risk of arsenic contamination.