Arsenic Mitigation of Drinking Water
Presence of Arsenic in drinking tube-well water is possibly known to all. But how drinking water containing Arsenic is mitigated in different countries may not be known to all of us. The technologies used to mitigate Arsenic may be different. But it is essential for the underdeveloped countries to innovate a sustainable method to mitigate Arsenic which should be cost effective, affordable and adaptable for all.
In Bangladesh people have been using Alum and very small amount of Potassium permanganate in appropriate proportion mixed in powdered form (one must be sure about the quantity and the proportion of the ingredients before using or prescribing). Once I myself collected and used this mixture from Arsenic Mitigation project office of DANIDA in late nineteen’s while I was working in a district town and my tube-well was marked with red colour. This marking indicated that this tube-well water is harmful to drink because of Arsenic beyond the limit. However one teaspoonful of this powder is mixed in10 litters of water and kept for 10 to 12 hours. Some sediment is seen deposited at the bottom of the jar. Carefully clean water from top of the jar is transferred to other jar and then the sediment was disposed off safely by digging a hole in the ground where nothing is usually grown. Some of the NGO’s are distributing this mixture. But one of the disadvantages of this method is the safe disposal of the sediments. Because the sediment contains high concentration of Arsenic which is harmful for plants, vegetable, crops soil and water. So it is not environmentally friendly.
People of about 8000 villages of Bangladesh, where 80% Tube-well is marked red, was also advised to hold and preserve rain water for drinking. It only rains for about 120 to 140 days in a year in south East Asian countries. But technology for holding and storing large quantities of rain water for each individual household or for community through out the year is not yet developed. But it is being experimented in some small community in the Hill tract region of Bangladesh.
Dr. Abul Hashem, a Bangladeshi Researcher working in United States, Invented a device popularly known as Sono Filter which is safely used for filtration of Arsenic. Dr. Abul Hashem has been awarded with Grainger Challenge Award. The award valued about 1.5 million Dollar was donated for the research and treatment of poor Arsenicosis patient and with this money a Non- govt. organization working in Kushtia, Bangladesh distributed Sono filter among 32000 families. The main advantage of this filter is it does not produce any toxic waste and environmentally friendly.
Thus the Researcher, World Health Organization, National and International organization who are working in this sector, should try to innovate very low- cost technology or device to easily mitigate Arsenic or to purify water from other alternate sources to save millions of people including children in developing countries of Asia.
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