77 million poisoned by arsenic in Bangladesh

By some estimates, between 35 and 77 million people in Bangladesh have been chronically exposed to arsenic-contaminated water as a result of a catastrophically misguided campaign in the 1970s. Millions of tube wells were drilled in the aim of providing villagers with clean, germ-free water. Many wells were inadvertently dug into shallow layers of soil that were heavily laced with naturally occurring arsenic.

The UN’s World Health Organisation (WHO) has called Bangladesh’s arsenic crisis ‘the largest mass poisoning of a population in history.’ Several previous investigations highlighted the health risks of contaminated groundwater, but they failed to explain how much of the tainted water a person may have drunk and what level of contamination was enough to cause sickness.

Read more at Straits Times

.

Bangladesh jute gets boost from plastic bag backlash

Jute, a vegetable fibre that is spun into coarse threads, was once known as the “golden fibre” of the British Empire when the Indian sub-continent was ruled from London.

The material’s long decline was hastened in the 1980s with the advent of synthetic fabrics, but the trend is being reversed due to growing opposition to the litter and pollution caused by plastic bags.

Read more at ekantipur.com.