SUNS4501 Wednesday 2 September 1999

Bangladesh: Conflict over blame for arsenic poisoning

United Nations, Aug (IPS/Thalif Deen) -- The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) is involved in a bitter dispute
with the government of Bangladesh over who is to blame for the millions of persons poisoned by arsenic-contaminated water in one of the world's poorest nations.

The Ministry of Environment and the Department of Public Health Engineering in Dhaka are exploring the
possibility of suing UNICEF or seeking compensation for some 30 million Bangladeshi citizens affected by
contaminated well water.

The New York-based children's agency, which cooperated with the Dhaka government in digging the tube
wells, claimed it is was unfair to blame only UNICEF in a collaborative effort of shared responsibility.

"UNICEF was part of a coalition that dug the wells," said UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy admitted. She stressed that everyone who participated in funding the project - Swiss, Swedes and British donors - did so with the best of intentions.

"Some people are now blaming UNICEF" for the tragedy, Bellamy told IPS, "while other people are blaming
others."

Ambassador Anwarul Karim Chowdhury of Bangladesh, himself a former high-ranking UNICEF official, said the UN agency should be more actively involved in a public information campaign to publicise the danger.

The arsenic contaminated water doesn't have an unusual taste, smell or colour. "There is no way to detect it
and that is why people continue drinking the water," Chowdhury told IPS.

He said that about 30 million people reportedly have been affected by the poisoning and more than a thousand
have died due to complications arising from arsenic contamination.

At a scheduled UNICEF Executive Board meeting next month, Bangladesh was expected to introduce a
resolution expressing "serious concern" over the fact that "a large sector of the population of Bangladesh had
been exposed to well water contaminated by arsenic and its serious effect on human health."

Chowdhury said the resolution would request Bellamy to take urgent steps to improve the situation and also urge UNICEF "to increase coordination with other UN agencies and the World Bank involved with this problem."

According to Bellamy, "the fact is that, arsenic has been discovered in some of the wells dug over the last 25
years in Bangladesh.

"We dug the wells at the behest of the Bangladesh government," she said. "The majority of the wells have been put up by the government but UNICEF has been part of the programme and a key partner of the government."

In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) last month, Babar Kabir, who is leading the
World Bank's arsenic mitigation effort, described the contamination as "perhaps the largest case of mass
poisoning in the history of mankind."

"What we term as potentially at risk, because this information database does not exist, could be anywhere
between 70 to 75 million people," he said.

According to the BBC programme, aid agencies have put huge efforts into installing tube wells over the last
two decades. Currently, there are about 4.5 million tube wells in Bangladesh - a country with a population of
about 126 million people.

"All but five of the country's 64 districts have wells that are contaminated," Kabir said.

Asked how much of the blame should be placed on UN agencies, UN spokesman David Lockwood said the
whole issue should be put in its right perspective.

"The programmes are in fact government programmes, with UN assistance," he said. "So that's why I come
back to the responsibility of the State, for its citizens. I don't believe that the UN has a direct responsibility for
the citizens of member states."

Asked about the cry for compensation, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Stephen Lewis said: "I must admit not to have thought it through carefully before, I would think that the dilemma will be for the government of Bangladesh, rather than for a multilateral agency like UNICEF."

"I think that if suits were filed down the road for compensation - and it won't be for the first time those suits
are filed against responsible State authorities - maybe that UNICEF would be named in such a suit down the
road, I think you have to demonstrate intention," he said.

According to Bellamy, UNICEF's primary object was to provide better water than the existing ground water.
"But now arsenic has been found and no water can be used."

Bellamy revealed there was "a major effort"in Bangladesh to stop people from using these tube wells where
people had been drinking the water for the last 25 years. But "they are not going to stop drinking even if there
is a big X on the well," she said

Nevertheless, UNICEF was working with the World Bank and the World Health Organisation (WHO) to
provide alternate supplies of water, Bellamy said.