This content was created by Matthew Deacon.
Mother and Baby getting Well Water from a Well Marked Red
1 media/Berry-BANGLADESH.Jhikargachha,Krishnanagur-2000_thumb.jpg 2024-08-15T14:18:15+00:00 Matthew Deacon e6c0bc2c3a5afcc5fd084388cdb29f3a67cf2186 138 1 Mother washes her baby and draws water for the family from a red-painted well indicating that the water is contaminated with arsenic. The village has no other source of pure water. plain 2024-08-15T14:18:15+00:00 2000 Ian Berry Jhikargachha, Krishnanagur District Matthew Deacon e6c0bc2c3a5afcc5fd084388cdb29f3a67cf2186This page is referenced by:
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2024-08-14T14:38:38+00:00
A Case of Injustice
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Industrial motives leave the people of Bangladesh no choice but to continue drinking the water that is killing them
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2024-08-16T15:11:52+00:00
An Issue of Environmental Injustice
The arsenic contamination in Bangladesh is an example of environmental injustice because it disproportionately affects poorer, marginalized groups and was largely caused by rapid industrialization. Urban and industrial waste is often polluted with arsenic and finds its way into groundwater. The Bush administration augmented this issue when they allowed for the dumping of industrial waste into nearby rivers or lakes in promotion of “big business”. Dr. Bilqis Hoque, director of environment and population research in Bangladesh, explains how because rivers are contaminated villagers are forced to drink arsenic contaminated groundwater. If companies did a better job disposing of their waste and avoided polluting the rivers in Bangladesh, the marginalized communities would have alternative options to drinking the contaminated groundwater.
The arsenic crisis is the epitome of a slow violence case due to its silent, long-term effects. Rob Nixon defines slow violence as “violence that occurs gradually and out of sight, a violence of delayed destruction that is dispersed across time and space.” The effects of arsenic poisoning take between ten to twenty years to set in, making it an example of gradual and out of sight violence. The delayed destruction of arsenic poisoning has come with great magnitude in the form of tens of thousands of deaths but has largely not been combatted with effective solutions. While industrialization is not entirely to blame for the contamination of the groundwater, by polluting alternative water sources they have certainly contributed to the violence.
An Issue of Slow ViolenceA Lack of Help
Bangladesh’s government and nonprofit organizations have not done enough to mitigate the contamination issue. Bangladesh’s government efforts have fell very short of adequate in attempts to solve the issue. Their largest measure was painting the contaminated wells red, which as shown in the image above, does nothing to prevent villagers from using the wells as they have no alternative water source.
While Bangladesh’s government may not have the funds to ameliorate the issue, NGOs have not done much better in working to solve the problem. One reason for this is that wealthy nations show indifference to environmental crisis in poorer countries, as Rob Nixon points out. Even Carol Bellamy, the head of UNICEF, admitted that her aid organization was too slow to respond as broadly as they could. She also acknowledged that if the issue had taken place in the United States there would have been bottled water delivered to everyone. Although NGOs have made some efforts, they have failed to optimize governance, have only operated in about half of Bangladesh’s village communities, and have been more focused on immediate environmental disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis, neglecting the effects of slow violence.
