Arsenic Contamination of Drinking Water
Bangladesh is the
World's Most Vulnerable Country

Discovering Arsenic Problem

• First sample of arsenic contaminated water was detected only recently in 1993 in connection to the examination of tube well water samples in some southern districts of Bangladesh by the Public Health Engineering Department of the Government of Bangladesh.
• Later several government and non-government organizations conducted more surveys, and according to the latest estimate there is arsenic contamination in at least 46 districts out of 64.
• There are about 4.5 million tube wells in Bangladesh and water samples from 30,000 have been examined so far.
• Arsenic contamination has been found in 19.4% samples.
• Arsenic levels well above acceptable range have been found in tube well water of 155 Thanas (Sub district) belonging to 44 districts.
• The acceptable level of arsenic in drinking water has been agreed to be 0.05 mg/L for Bangladesh.
• Arsenic level above the acceptable range has been only found in low bored tube well water; but deep tube well water did not show arsenic contamination as yet.
• The districts have been categorized as More Contaminated Less Contaminated and Contamination Free depending upon the water level of arsenic.
• Table-1 shows their numbers and names:

No. of affected Districts

No. of affected Thanas

Name of the Districts

33

137

11

18

16

4

64