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Bangladesh - Wells of ‘killing’ not ‘living’ water
Wells have a mythic status in many cultures; from European folklore in which throwing a coin into a ‘wishing well’ makes a wish come true, to blessed wells associated with a Saint with reputed healing powers. In the Bible, with most of the narrative taking place in semi-arid or desert areas, wells are naturally key to many of the accounts. God opens the eyes of Hagar, cast out due to Sarah’s jealousy and about to die of thirst, to a nearby well (Genesis 21:19). Then Isaac (Genesis 24) and Moses (Exodus 2:15) both meet their wives at wells and many more accounts follow right through the Bible with Jesus Christ having one of his most significant conversations with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well, whom Jesus offers ‘living water’ (John 4). Wells are so important within the Bible and in folklore because a good clean source of water is essential for the life of all societies.
Every year three million children under five years of age die of diarrhoea and this is also a major contributor to malnutrition for both children and adults in the developing world. In Bangladesh the percentage of infant deaths caused by diarrhoea was probably one of the highest, but has recently been much reduced. The solution has been a well: a simple, strong, hand-operated pump that draws water, through a pipe from the shallow groundwater beneath. During the 1970s and 1980s the Government, UNICEF, international agencies and many of the poor, with low-interest loans from NGOs, installed wells by their homes, amounting to over four million countrywide. I recently spoke to Hassan who spoke of his happiness and pride when he installed a tubewell in his courtyard. He had to save for some time to afford it, but it made life so much easier for his family, especially the women, who no longer had to trek long distances and the children weren’t sick so often. Wells again had become a powerful symbol of a new and more promising life.
Now try and imagine how Hassan felt when Rebecca, a local woman testing his well for arsenic, discovered dangerous levels – 40 times higher than the safe limit in the water. This explained why his friendly neighbour who shared his well had developed a deadly cancer, why his previously attractive young wife’s skin had become rough with dark blotches, why he frequently felt too weak to farm his land and had the early signs of gangrene of his foot, why his elderly aunt had got very sick and died and his youngest child had been born badly deformed. His prized well that he had spent his precious savings on had brought death and sickness to his loved ones. ‘Utter devastation’ could not come close to describing how he must have felt.
Hassan is a character I have created, but the details and scenario are real enough. In over 100 communities where the Church of Bangladesh Social Development Programme (CBSDP) works, this nightmare situation is repeated many times over; there are in effect many Hassans each with a heartbreaking tale. In one small village, Bholadanga, over 35 people have already died from the slow painful effects of ‘the king of poison’ while in another village, Alumpur, over 400 people are already showing symptoms as over 90% of their wells are arsenic-affected.
The arsenic is naturally found in Bangladesh’s groundwater, deposited with the water that flows from the Himalayas, along with rich soils, over millennia in this ‘land of rivers’. It wasn’t until the wells were sunk into ground layers that had accumulated the arsenic that it became a problem. As arsenic has no colour, smell, or taste, it was not until the first symptoms and death that the poisoning became apparent. The CBSDP has been identifying contamination through testing wells, giving vitamin treatment that, along with safe water, aids recovery and providing alternative sources of water, such as very shallow dug wells that go above the arsenic-contaminated water levels. Other options for arsenic safe water include deeper tube wells that go below the contaminated water, filters and rainwater harvesting. But the need is immense as over 40 million people in Bangladesh are currently drinking arsenic contaminated water and the resources committed to tackle the problem are vastly insufficient.
Please pray for us that God will help us to make a difference and that the Church of Bangladesh will be able to offer ‘living water’ in more than one sense, so that the families now drinking ‘killing water’ will live and their suffering will cease.
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