Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Minister Md Tazul Islam told Parliament on Tuesday that some 11 percent of the country’s total population is currently at risk of arsenic contamination in the country.

He placed this statistic as per the report of a joint survey, Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, 2019, conducted by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics in and UNICEF.

The Minister was answering a question from Awami League lawmaker Morshed Alam (Noakhali-2) in the House. Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury tabled the question-answer session at the beginning of the day’s sitting.

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Focusing on the government measures to protect the common people from arsenic, the LGRD Minister said various projects are being implemented in rural areas through the Department of Public Health and Engineering.

He said some 1,065,000 arsenic free water sources will be installed by 2025. In this case, apart from deep tube wells, there will be the system for water supply through pipes, rainwater harvesting, pond excavation and re-excavation.

“With this, the risk of arsenic contamination would come down at 5-6 percent by 2025,” said Tazul Islam.

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In reply to another question from AL MP Shafiul Alam Chowdhury (Maulvibazar-2), the LGRD Minister said some Tk 32 crores have been allocated to the country’s 12 city corporations for carrying out dengue control and cleaning activities, while Tk 20 crores to the municipalities for the same purpose.

Besides, Tk 100 crores were kept for Union Parishad’s development assistance sector to face the backwardness of the Unions, natural disasters and outbreak of diseases, he said.

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