Nearly two million at risk of arsenic poisoning
Updated
The UN says 1.7 million people living along the Mekong River are at risk of arsenic poisoning from their drinking water supplies.
The risk assessment is part of ongoing efforts to survey wells and other water sources in Southeast Asia.
Presenter: Liam Cochrane
Speakers: Nuon Pichnimith, Cambodia's deputy director of the rural water supply department; Mark Henderson, UNICEF's regional advisor for water, sanitation and hygeine
- Listen:
- Windows Media
COCHRANE: The problem of arsenic poisoning in water supplies originally emerged in Bangladesh and India in the 90s, as the drilling of new wells exposed tens of millions of people to its ill effects. Now, worrying levels of exposure are being found in the four countries which depend of the Mekong river - China, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Cambodia's deputy director of the rural water supply department is Nuon Pichnimith.
PICHNIMITH: And surprisingly we found arsenic problem, especially some wells that near Mekong river. Most of the flooding area that when we test we saw the arsenic.
COCHRANE: Arsenic is released naturally into some groundwater systems as a result of normal geo-chemical processes, but when people drink it, the poison can build up to dangerous levels, and cause skin lesions and cancers. Arsenic is difficult to detect in water supplies, as it has no taste or smell, and the side effects can take several years to show up.
Mark Henderson is UNICEF's regional advisor for water, sanitation and hygeine.
HENDERSON: You have to consume a fairly high level of arsenic over a number of years and then its manifest through lesions on the hands or feet and then cancers.
COCHRANE: Currently UNICEF has half a million arsenic tests logged in a database and a report mapping the high-risk areas of the world is due out soon.
So far, testing has found Asia's hotspots to be in Burma's Irrawaddy delta, the Red River delta of China, Thailand's Chao Praya basin and Cambodia's Tonle Sap lake - as well as the Mekong. While entire river systems may be considered at risk, Mr Henderson says it can be difficult to pick the safe wells from the deadly.
HENDERSON: When you actually go and test the wells, you find that there might be arsenic in one well and 50m away there would be no arsenic, so its a very localized problem.
COCHRANE: There's no cure for arsenic poisoning, and removing the chemical from the water is difficult and costly. Usually, those wells which are identified as dangerous are painted red and used only for washing clothes or dishes - which is harmless. Communities must then find alternatives for their drinking water, such as harvesting rainwater. Mr Nuon, from Cambodia's rural water supply department, says that while arsenic hotspots have turned up all over the country, they are concentrated in heavily populated areas near the capital.
PICHNIMITH: When we saw the arsenic contamination higher than WHO we mark by the red colour and not allow people to use, especially in Phnom Penh, in Kien Svay dist, so now most of the wells there we not allow people to use, just keep for use in household, as washing clothes, not for drinkable.
COCHRANE: Mark Henderson from UNICEF says efforts to contain the problem are making progress.
HENDERSON: We've reached a point where governments pretty much understand the problem, they have a handle on wherethe hotspots are, they've developed national strategies to address it. And now its a matter of just implementing those strategies, continuing to support those communities who are at risk of arsenic and finding alternative safe water sources for them.
