Towards harmonizing approaches for scaling up access to arsenic safe water in Bangladesh: The Arsenic Safe Village Concept

Although 97.8% of the population in Bangladesh haves access to improved water sources, 19.7 million people use water sources that are contaminated above the Government of Bangladesh (GOB) standards for arsenic (As, 50 mu g L-1), posing a significant health risk. There were many initiatives taken by Government and donors on As mitigation, however the situation did not improve significantly. UNICEF Bangladesh with partners implemented a new approach of As mitigation by addressing entire villages to provide As-safe water and with improved sanitation and hygiene behavior. Rather than thinking about individual water points, consider the entire population in a village. The core objectives of this approach are a quantitative, measurable, reduction in As exposure, and the aim is to building up areas of contiguous As safety in the sequence of village to union, union to upazila and then to district. Using this approach 126 villages have been declared 'Arsenic-safe village with improved sanitation and hygiene'.