Arsenic Found
In TSF Wells
Solution to be found in simple rain water collectors
(as
of September, 2003)
In June 2003, while home in the USA, TSF’s Nancy Hendrie read an article in the Boston Globe about arsenic contamination of deep wells in Bangladesh and the medical and moral problems of British Geological Survey and others who had placed the wells in order to provide “safe” water free from bacteria and parasites, major killers. Arsenic, colorless and odorless, causes ulcers, gangrene, and bladder and lung cancers over the long term.
Dr. Hendrie asked Elephant to obtain water samples from the seven wells TSF has had bored since 1999, and to have it tested. We were shocked when we found that although two of our wells in Prey Veng Province, and the one at Kampong Speu Orphanage are fine, all four wells we have provided in Roteang village have high levels of arsenic. All have now been painted red, the universal sign for “external use only” and signs have been posted not to drink or cook with this water.
Armed with advice from top consultants from Harvard and MIT, Dr. Hendrie and several TSF Board members set to work on sorting through possible solutions. Oddly it was found that there was little known in the U.S. about arsenic contamination in Cambodia, unlike abundant information available regarding similar problems in Bangladesh. After more research it was found that the problem appears to be caused by a certain geological formation affecting wells bored between 40 and 100 meters deep. One suggestion was very deep drilling but no companies in Cambodia can bore deeper than the 50 to 70 meters we had already achieved for our wells. Another suggestion is expensive filtration, and with it the maintenance and replacement of filters and the problem of disposal of the hazardous waste filters once used up, a difficult and risky proposition in Cambodia.
Digging shallow wells might alleviate the arsenic problem, but past experience has shown that they are prone to contamination from parasites and bacteria.
Dr. Hendrie left for Cambodia again in July to pursue the arsenic issue, beginning with a meeting with a UNICEF water specialist. This yielded maps showing that the whole area 2 km on either side of the Mekong River was arsenic contaminated. UNICEF referred us to several water experts in Phnom Penh, and we learned that knowledge of the presence of this poison was about five years old.
Although it had been observed that we were boring new wells, TSF was not told that we could be poisoning the people we were trying to help!
Further networking led us to an NGO (Non-Government Organization), called Resource Development International, headed by an American water specialist, Mickey Sampson PhD, who has been working at remediation of arsenic for a number of years in Cambodia. We visited several of his sites, and he visited us at Roteang village. The best solution appears to be to build vast tanks for storage of rainwater, with simple filtering, to provide water for drinking and cooking.
Rainwater turns out to be the purest water around, and the issue then becomes one of practical storage of large amounts, and the protection of water from mosquito larvae [bearing dengue fever in Roteang], and regular maintenance of the tanks. With the large roof area at Roteang orphanage it would be possible to provide for villagers via two giant storage tanks on orphanage property, and piping through our front perimeter wall.
For the farm project, individual roof collection systems can be built, and mosquito-tight water jars and filtration arranged, at a cost of $75 per each of the 46 families. Maureen Ruettgers of the Ruettgers Family Foundation, supporters of the Farm Outreach project since the beginning, has without hesitation agreed to fund this piece. For the orphanage, simple filtration and precipitation will do, and we are proceeding with the $1800 cost of this. Roteang Orphanage has always used only bottled water for drinking and cooking anyway, and will continue to do so.
The Roteang village school has a well, provided by the Government, where we have often observed the children drinking the water from cupped hands. It is heavily arsenic contaminated. One goal this Fall will be to raise the $1800 it will take to install a roof collecting system, two 10,000 gallon tanks, with pumps and filtration as pictured on the front of this newsletter. We will hope if there is more interest in safe water, to replace other contaminated school wells with this new system also.
(as of September, 2003)