In 1999, the BBC published an article stating that over 40 percent of drinking wells in Bangladesh were contaminated with dangerous levels of arsenic.
16 years later and those statistics have only gotten worse. There are roughly 125 million people living in Bangladesh. Of that, an estimated 30-77 million people have been affected by arsenic poisoning by drinking contaminated ground and well water.
Unfortunately, this is due to good intentions gone horribly wrong.
In the 1970s, in an effort to curb the proliferation of waterborne illnesses, tube wells began to be built across Bangladesh. Typically less than 45 meters deep, they were easy to install with conventional methods and readily accessible. And at roughly $100 per well, it seemed like a fantastic project for the international community to get behind. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of tube wells built since the 70’s is thought to have doubled every five years throughout rural Bangladesh.
However, unknown at the time, this was also exposing the population to dangerous levels of arsenic. According to the WHO, “At the time the wells were installed, arsenic was not recognized as a problem in water supplies, and therefore standard water testing procedures did not include tests for arsenic.”
The biggest issue is how difficult it is to obtain safe water. According to an article by NBC, Bangladesh is “one of the world’s poorest nations, where half the people live on just $1 a day. Few can afford to dig deep wells that draw safe water from aquifers below arsenic-contaminated layers.”
Currently over 90 percent of Bangladeshi households obtain their drinking water from roughly 10 million tube wells, and arsenic poisoning has been found to be the cause of one in five deaths in Bangladesh.
That’s frightening. But there’s hope.
Drinkwell was founded in 2013 by Minhaj Cowdhury with the goal of providing filtration systems to poor communities in areas such as Bangladesh. The system is designed to lower dangerously high levels of arsenic and fluoride to acceptable levels.
Cowdhury grew up in Dallas, Texas, but when he was young he often visited his family’s homeland of Bangladesh. It was there he was first exposed to what the WHO called the largest instance of mass poisoning in human history.
This inspired him to do something--but he wondered how to go about it.
In an interview with Mic.com Cowdhury said “Water is absolutely a human right. When you actually provide water to people in need I don’t think that should be a for-profit activity; it should be provided by the government. But, at the same time, the institutions are so broken.”
The biggest issue that arises when NGOs provide water purification systems is that the equipment requires maintenance that the people using them are not capable of providing.
Common purification techniques are also very inefficient. The most widely used method is reverse osmosis, which wastes 40-60 percent of the water being purified.
Drinkwell uses a completely different approach. First off, they use a resin-based regenerable absorbent that only wastes 1 percent of the water being purified. That makes a huge difference.
Second, Drinkwell uses a micro-entrepreneurial business model to implement their revolutionary filtration system. This means that instead of just building the system and servicing it as needed, Drinkwell provides the equipment and teaches selected entrepreneurs how to use it, maintain it and turn a profit from it.
This allows communities to provide their own water, and if their system breaks, fix it themselves. It also helps stimulate the local economy by providing jobs.
Random checks are performed unannounced by Drinkwell to maintain levels of cleanliness and functionality. When the filter material is totally full of unwanted materials, it is cleaned through a simple process then reused.
This method is so much more efficient and useful than traditional methods of water purification. It’s the classic dichotomy of giving someone a fish, and teaching them how to fish.
Reverse osmosis techniques is giving villages a fish, and telling them to wait for more. Drinkwell’s method is teaching the village how to make a fishing rod.
If you believe in fair access to water, then go to TAKE ACTION NOW to call on world leaders to provide access to clean water and sanitation to all.