The challenge
Contaminated surface water was causing deadly diarrheal disease.
The case
From the 1970s, UNICEF and the government of Bangladesh promoted shallow tubewells to give people groundwater instead of surface water that spread diarrheal disease. Millions of wells were dug and child deaths from waterborne disease fell. But the water from the wells was not tested for arsenic, which occurs naturally in much of the country. By the 1990s, tens of millions of people were found to be exposed, and researchers writing in the WHO's Bulletin called it the largest poisoning of a population in history. Writing in the WHO Bulletin in 2000, Smith and colleagues estimated that between 35 million and 77 million of Bangladesh's 125 million people were at risk.
Why it didn't work
Solving one health problem created another because the new water source wasn't tested for all major risks. Large-scale programs need checks for unintended harm before and during rollout.
Sources
- Smith, A. H., Lingas, E. O., & Rahman, M. (2000). Contamination of drinking-water by arsenic in Bangladesh: a public health emergency. Bulletin of the World Health Organization.
- Smith, A. H., Lingas, E. O., & Rahman, M. (2000). Contamination of drinking-water by arsenic in Bangladesh: a public health emergency. Bulletin of the World Health Organization.
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