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Shadow Government
Trees unheard
by John A. Jackson
Quite some time ago, I came across a fascinating "New York Times" article on Bangladesh.
Ordinarily, I admit, I avoid reading about utterly hopeless Third World countries. I have no solutions for what ails them, and a limited tolerance for misery. Does that make me a terrible person? Perhaps.
But this article shocked my jaded soul. I raced through the Net seeking to confirm it, and found nothing. So I never wrote about the story.
This week, purely by accident, I renewed my search. Bingo. The current "Scientific American" carries an article on the subject. There are also several websites devoted to the Bangladeshi crisis. Only the "Scientific America" article, however, was published in this country. If any U.S. newspaper carried a follow-up to the "Times" story, including the "Times," I've never found it.
So what is this crisis? Arsenic poisoning from well water. At least 25 million people are affected in both Bangladesh and neighboring parts of India. More than 7,000 have already died, and that's just the start.
It's an ugly death. At relative low levels, arsenic takes many years to kill you and tortures you horribly before does. Also, if you are not lucky, you helplessly watch your family sicken and die before you do.
So how did the problem arise? Out of the best intentions in the world.
Since the early 1970's, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has paid for 12 million simple tube wells to be drilled throughout Bangladesh, which now serve about 97 per cent of the population. The wells, a potent health measure, are still being drilled.
Letting the region's poor tap ground rather than surface water saves about 250,000 lives from dysentery every year. But the ground water is heavily contaminated with arsenic. The current U.S. limit for drinking water is 50 parts per billion, although the EPA has proposed cutting that by 90 per cent. Wells in Bangladesh have tested at 4,000 parts per billion, eighty times the U.S. limit.
Are there ways to filter out the arsenic?
Yes, but so far they are costly, and often ineffective because they rely for their efficiency on the water's natural iron content.
Alternatively, the World Health Organization recommends the villagers drill their wells deeper than 300 feet, to draw from a different and uncontaminated aquifer. That, too, is the counsel of perfection. How many families with tube wells do you suppose can afford to drill more than 300 feet, or even pay for the tubing? Personal income in Bangladesh averages about $100 a year.
Can I fix this problem? No, of course not.
Should it be fixed? Certainly.
Can it be? Not likely.
Are there many such problems about which we Americans know nothing? I found the "Times" article purely by accident. Surely, there are other crises about which I am totally ignorant.
Did you know about the arsenic poisoning?
Do any of these crises, as yet undiscovered, affect people in this country, or in the region where I live, crises caused for whatever reason by man?
I do not have any confidence that God loves me more than the typical Bengali or Egyptian. So I worry a lot.
And I most definitely want our government, and our media, to respond quickly when the next crisis erupts. (ITALICS)John Jackson may be reached at TomShadwell@cs.com. ER