Lessons Learned from Emergency Arsenic Mitigation Activities

QQ Zaman, M Rahman, M A Hasnat, S Roy, M R Chowdhury

Dhaka Community Hospital

Carrying out a country wide survey was a big challenge to DCH with its limited resources. But due to careful planning and implementation the survey was completed successfully. The actual way of surveying was an important learning process for DCH. Through this study we were able to utilise the wonderful potential of our youth, and at the same time we were impressed by the cooperation and participation of the community. We experienced many problems during the study; most of these were overcome by our team members. The most important learning for DCH is that community participation has to be ensured to formulate any mitigation plan in future to combat arsenic problems. Our observation suggests that cost effective mitigation options to combat arsenic crisis which are integrated, sustainable and affordable to the community may be find out through community involvement, a huge establishment won't be required. Lesson learnt from this survey will be applied to the next phase of our works.

Points Discussed

Public health problem

Criteria:

Magnitude of the problem
Severity of the problem
Whether any intervention available?
Intervention is cost effective

Lessons Learned

It is a public health problem for Bangladesh
Potentials of our young people
Community cooperation & involvement
Lists of water sources
Database for 200 villages
Needs assessment of the community & their need for safe arsenic-free water

Problems Faced

Lack of coordination between GOB & others
Validity of field kits are in question
People still drinking water from "red" tubewells
Difficulties in patient management
Village maps weren't supplied
Number of tubewells varies
Accommodation, food, communication problems
Sample water testing report?

Available Options

Existing green (safe) tube well
Existing pond/ tank water
Dug well
Rain water harvesting
Pond sand filtration
Filtration at home level