Hungary offers Bangladesh arsenic containment project

In first-ever foreign office consultations, Hungary has proposed a pilot project to help Bangladesh reduce arsenic contaminations in potable waters, the foreign ministry says.

The European country also pledged to provide both technical and financial assistance for the implementation of the project at the meeting held in Dhaka on Wednesday.

Around 20 million people consume water with "arsenic concentrations above 50 μg/L" a threshold set for Bangladesh's safe water, according to a 2013 national survey of drinking water.

Rights activists accuse the government of failing to “adequately respond” to the arsenic problem that ‘kills estimated 43,000 people’ each year.

Both sides also agreed to enhance cooperation in the field of education, culture, water resources management, agriculture, and ICT sectors in the meeting which followed the first visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Hungary in November last year.

The foreign ministry's Director General of the Europe Wing Mohammad Khorshed A Khastagir led the Bangladesh side while Director General for Asia Pacific of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary Dr Sándor Sipos led Hungarian delegation.

Representatives of the Ministries of Education, Commerce, Water Resources, Agriculture, Cultural Affairs, Bangladesh Water Development Board, Water Resources Planning Organization (WRPO) and BIDA were present in the meeting.

The foreign ministry said the consultations involved “a productive exchange on political and bilateral issues, economic and current global issues”.

Two sides agreed to finalise the draft framework -- Agreement on Educational, Scientific and Cultural Cooperation -- at the earliest to facilitate 100 scholarships to be offered by the Hungarian government to Bangladeshi students for higher studies in Hungarian institutions.