Arsenic Creates Social Crisis in Bangladesh

Arsenic catastrophe in Bangladesh:
As a single country Bangladesh has experienced the largest arsenic catastrophe in human history- 61 out of 64 districts in Bangladesh are arsenic contaminated. About 35 million inhabitants in Bangladesh are at risk of drinking arsenic contaminated water exceeding 0.05 mg/L.

Drinking arsenic-contaminated water for a long time is toxic and develops arsenicosis disease affecting cardiovascular, hepatic, renal, gastrointestinal, neurological and reproductive systems of human body. The most common manifestations among arsenicosis patients are skin lesions.

Besides its toxicity, groundwater arsenic contamination creates widespread social problems like social hazards, poverty, social instability, superstition, ostracism, and marriage related problems for its victims and their families in Bangladesh. It is also associated with poor mental health and developmental disabilities.

Effects of arsenicosis on rural society in Bangladesh:
There is a strong link between poverty and arsenicosis diseases. Arsenicosis enhances the economic burden of the poor. Most of the poor arsenicosis patients remain untreated due to financial restraints. Reports from various sources suggest that 20-70% of the patients did not receive any treatment in Bangladesh due to financial problems. If the poor arsenicosis patients go for treatment, they need to spend a big proportion of their money on this, which finally diminishes the household income and increases the economic burden on the poor victims and their families. Moreover, the cost of obtaining arsenic free water also diminishes household income.

In Bangladesh, arsenic victims are often wrongly identified as leprosy patients and isolated from their close relations. Arsenicosis disease hampers socialization by social stigmatization and discrimination. Arsenic patients often remain ostracized in all age-groups and barred from social activities. Children of arsenicosis patients are not allowed to attend social and religious functions as well as denied to take water from a neighbour’s tube well and students debarred from school. Affected families are also not allowed to take baths in any of the village ponds. Some unaffected people behave in a hostile manner and think that patients should either stay in their homes or leave the village.

Arsenic victims are abandoned, not only by society but also by their family members. There are some instances that arsenicosis leads to a break-down of the marital relationships. For instance, wives were divorced or separated or sent back to their parents’ house because of the arsenicosis disease. There are also some evidences that wives left arsenic affected husbands because they were afraid of arsenicosis. Generally people are reluctant to establish marital relationships with those families suffering from arsenicosis. Young women and men in the affected families are advised to remain unmarried. Such incidents cause unlimited anxiety for both patients and parents of arsenic-affected adult children. In Bangladesh, arsenicosis women are the worst victims of ostracism than arsenicosis men, because they are vulnerable by two ways: firstly by the disease itself and secondly by becoming outcast. Affected women also experience socially undesirable events like dowry, physical torture, and polygamy. Due to the patriarchal system and lower socio-cultural position of women in the society, unmarried women and women abandoned by husband and families live inhumanly.

 Things could be done to overcome the crisis:
As arsenic in drinking water could turn out to be a “slow weapon of mass destruction”, it is upon the media to high light the threat of arsenicosis and sensitizing all concerned to adopt measures to fight threat.  Sensitization of community members and law enforcement authority to prevent separation and ostracism may be helpful to improve mental health of the arsenic victims. To overcome the socio-economic crisis, psychosocial support and employment opportunities should be provided to the patients. Victims need accurate health information as well as supportive counseling to improve their stress situation. Rehabilitation programs for arsenicosis patients especially for women are needed.

[Source: this article is based on secondary source of published and un-published  information; images are taken from internet].