The Region That Can't Stop Poisoning Itself

Of all the places on earth that we’ve discussed on this channel, the “arsenic belt” of India might just have the worst name. And that’s for good reason. You think perhaps of places like the rust belt, or the bible belt, areas that despite their problems, have their charms. But the arsenic belt?

That’s a whole different story. Thanks to a brutal mix of government incompetence, poverty, and geography, rural villages across India are full of people with cancer, some settlements have many living with brain disorders, and some? Well in some places there are only a few people left.

The arsenic problem is so widespread in this part of the world that the World Health Organisation – without hyperbole – refer to it as the greatest mass poisoning in human history. People are suffering every day with hundreds of times the safe limit in their bodies, often times with no choice.

And the worst part? All of this was preventable. But the powers that be have sat on their hands for decades, making a minor health problem into a nationwide catastrophe.

So how did we end up here, with so many dead, dying, and forever changed? Why is it so hard to fix it? And what hope is there for the future?

This is the region that can’t stop poisoning itself. Welcome to the arsenic belt.

Arsenic Views

So where actually are we in the world today? You’ve likely gathered from the intro that we’re talking about India, but where? India is a big place, but so is the arsenic belt.

And no, that’s not something you wear to be edgy and high fashion. It’s a strip of land in India where all of the high concentrations of arsenic are (sidenote, you’re going to learn a lot about arsenic today, go figure.) It’s kind of hard to nail down exactly where the arsenic problem is the worst in India, because in truth there are pockets of it all over the country.

On a map, India’s arsenic belt looks like it follows the great river plains of the north and east: the Ganges and Brahmaputra systems, from Uttar Pradesh through Bihar and West Bengal, and into Assam. But it’s not quite that simple. Significant contamination has also been reported in Jharkhand, Manipur and Chhattisgarh, with smaller pockets appearing elsewhere depending on local geology.

So rather than one place, today we’re going to really be talking about a widespread collection of places in India that are all undergoing the same problem.

And that problem is of course, arsenic. Arsenic is a naturally occurring, toxic metalloid that is found widely within the earth’s crust and in minerals. It has both an organic and an inorganic form, and it can often contaminate groundwater via sediment that has a lot of iron in it. So, if it can be found anywhere… why India?

Geologically, northern and eastern India sit below one of the world’s great sediment factories. The Himalayas are young, actively eroding mountains whilst mighty rivers like the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna grind rock down and spread vast amounts of silt, sand and clay across the plains. Some of that sediment contains arsenic-bearing minerals. The arsenic over time finds itself in waterlogged underground layers, and when oxygen is low enough – like thanks to the introduction of organic matter – then it creates the conditions for that arsenic to be released into the wider groundwater.

Which causes problems.

Because alongside being acutely toxic to humans and carcinogenic, it’s also odourless, colourless, and tasteless when it dissolves in water – meaning without chemical testing its completely undetectable.

But believe it or not, this isn’t a solely natural phenomenon, it’s the history of India’s interactions with the water table in the 20th century that have unexpectedly brought this naturally occurring crisis to the surface. You see, that arsenic packed below the earth in the groundwater, it was largely fine just where it was before the 1960s, there was probably some arsenic in the water but nowhere near today’s levels. But here’s the thing, living in India in the 1960s was not easy, especially for rural folk. People were poor, and extremely water insecure. People would get their water wherever they could. Rivers, streams, ponds, lakes, even the rain would all suffice because without it, people would just die.

But not all that water was safe to drink. Sure, a lot of it probably was, but it wasn’t like water you or I might experience today. It wasn’t filtered for things like bacteria, which led to all kinds of nasty waterborne illnesses breaking out into local epidemics like cholera. The government needed a solution, and it found one in the groundwater.

The groundwater could be pumped to the surface thanks to the installation of shallow tube wells, giving an unprecedented amount of people access to water that for all intents and purposes was much safer than the stuff they were getting from the surface. People could drink it and they wouldn’t get diseases. Today it’s reported that 700 million Indians depend on groundwater to meet their needs, it was a miracle.

Or at least, that’s how it seemed. Because all throughout rural India tens of thousands of these shallow tube wells were being sunk into areas where aquifers lay close to the ground, where large amounts of arsenic were just waiting to be pumped to the surface via the so-called “safe” water. In those areas where arsenic deposits lay dormant thanks to the Himalayas and river networks, now it was being pumped into people’s homes, their fields, and their bodies.

Over the decades that followed, high concentrations of arsenic were slowly starting to be detected in various rural areas across India, but mostly around the Ganges and Brahmaputra river basins. That wasn’t all, excess fluorides and even uranium were popping up a lot in testing too. Arsenic was discovered in West Bengal in the 80s, by the 90s it had been detected in Bangladesh and eastern India, Assam would first recognise its own problems with arsenic in 2004.

But people had long been getting sick and dying by then, and by the hundreds of thousands.

The Human Cost

The human impact of the arsenic belt is not a new revelation to anybody. As we mentioned it was discovered in the 80s and then the 90s was when it seemed to get a lot worse. For as long as this has been going on, people have been running studies on the water to look at just how much of an impact little old arsenic can really have.

And frankly, the truth is shocking.

A 27-year field study by a team of researchers from Jadavpur University in Kolkata studied the magnitude of arsenic and fluoride contamination in groundwater and its health affects across numerous states. The report they provided in 2016 stated in no uncertain terms that quote: “India is the worst groundwater fluoride and arsenic affected country in the world.”

It’s reported that over one million people’s lives have prematurely ended as a result of the arsenic in the water. That’s not people who suffered with a few health complications throughout their lives but were otherwise fine. That’s not even the number of those who were permanently disabled but not killed by it. No. that’s the number of dead alone. Which means the number of people suffering as a result of the arsenic is bound to be so much higher.

One study reported that over 250 million people across all of India could be exposed to groundwater arsenic above the government’s own limits. For what it’s worth, India’s permissible limit for too much arsenic in the drinking water is listed as 0.05 milligrams per litre (at least in the absence of an alternative water source) although the official limit is the same as the one given by the WHO, who give a guideline of 0.01 milligrams per litre for nations across the world. But the reality is, there are millions of people within the arsenic belt living far in excess of those limits.

Kameshwar Mahato, a 63-year-old resident of Chapar village in the state of Bihar developed blood pressure issues which caused him to develop a tremor. So, the doctors tested his hair for arsenic as this is a common problem. Remember that a safe dose of arsenic is around 0.05 milligrams per litre. Kameshwar’s hair broke the scale – 17.613 milligrams per litre.

That is over 350 times the safe limit. For anyone to have arsenic levels that high indicates that the groundwater problem has been not just present for decades – but widespread too, or even borderline ubiquitous for many living in these regions. The doctor advised Kameshwar to drink safer water, but that’s a lot easier said than done here when the nearest safe well might be miles away.

Ok but, what actually is the big deal here? What does arsenic actually do to the human body, and why do such large quantities of it amount to a public health disaster?

Long term intake of arsenic-contaminated water is linked to a myriad of horrible health issues that you would really rather avoid. Firstly, cancer. The thing about water is us humans are made of 70% of the stuff, and the water we take in can go pretty much anywhere in your body given enough time. Arsenic poisoning – or arsenicosis – is linked with cancers of the skin, bladder, gall bladder, kidneys, or lungs just to name a few.

Most commonly people get various skin diseases and dermatitis. Arsenic poisoning shows up in either coloured patches on the skin, or in hardened skin patches on the hands and feet. You can also get diseases related to blood vessels in the legs and feet. But really there is an entire breadth of diseases that this carcinogen will try to give you which can cut your life tragically short.

It’s even linked in some people to the onset of diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases, neurological affects, liver damage, and even reproductive disorders – all of which have life-altering second order effects. So yeah, arsenic is kinda the worst. In fact, reproductive issues are quite a common way in which people realise there is something wrong with the water they use to survive.

Exposure to high levels of arsenic during pregnancy is associated with a six-times increase in the risk of miscarriages, stillbirths, premature births, low birth weight and even neonatal deaths. For many pregnant mothers, infants, and unborn children the deck is stacked against them from the beginning.

Take Malti Ojha from Bihar’s Bhojpur district for example. She had been pregnant four times, but due to the arsenic content in the water, all four pregnancies resulted in miscarriages. She reportedly travelled to her parents’ house the fifth time she got pregnant. At her parents the groundwater was largely arsenic-free, and it was there where she was able to finally give birth on the fifth attempt.

But when kids are born, they’re not out of the woods either. A 2023 study of schoolchildren in one area of West Bengal in the arsenic belt reported extremely high concentrations of the metal in the students’ bodies. Children are actually particularly vulnerable to arsenic damage, because when their systems try and rid themselves of the poisonous element, their internal organs are severely affected, which in turn stunts physical and mental growth. And… you know… children need these things.

There are centres for children in this part of the world filled with hundreds of kids all severely affected by various mental and physical problems. They know it’s the arsenic and God-knows-what-else in the water because most of the time there’s no genetic history of such disorders in the kids’ families. And if kids are able to have a normal-enough life, arsenicosis still puts up barriers for them. Those with physical symptoms like skin lesions for example face social stigma, it affects their marriage prospects, employment opportunities, and more.

For example, many young men from the arsenic belt get rejected for armed services and paramilitary work because they don’t meet the medical requirements. The arsenic poisoned them to such an extent that they no longer qualify for combat duty. That’s one roundabout way of draft dodging I suppose…

For all intents and purposes though these kinds of challenges can make arsenicosis feel a little bit like having leprosy, just without the leper colonies. It severely hampers not only people’s health, but their quality of life in general as well. And it’s not like people can move really.

Many would if they could but they’re just too poor or their whole lives are nearby, where would they even go? You’d be taking people away from the only community that actually understands their plight. For example, there are villages in the Indo-Gangetic plains called “widow villages” because all the men have died from drinking the arsenic, so the women band together to look after each other.

The women in these communities often moved to the area decades before to marry, and so they had a couple fewer decades of drinking fucking arsenic. The result is that the men drop dead and their wives – themselves still riddles with arsenicosis – are left behind to run these villages. They too will succumb later in life.

There are some societal factors that also make it worse for the individuals living in the arsenic belt. Whilst arsenic is mostly natural, in these areas excessive groundwater extraction – for things like watering crops and washing clothes – lowers the overall water table of the area, which actually accelerates the release of arsenic into the water. But it’s not like these people can opt to just stop growing food, cooking, eating, bathing, and washing clothes though. If there’s no safe well, there’s no safe well, and in the absence of clean water, any water will do, arsenic or otherwise.

Of course, industrial waste and use of arsenic-based pesticides don’t help and do add to the levels of contamination, but ultimately, they’re not the main issue here, it’s the land’s natural arsenic causing a lot of the heartache… or I suppose in this case it’s… “everything-ache.” The natural arsenic, mixed with modern human agricultural practices of course. The groundwater issue is bad, people have known about it for decades, but it’s only getting worse with time. The more arsenic there is in the water, the more it infiltrates the food chain.

Because what is the easiest staple crop to grow in India?

Rice.

You know, the stuff they grow pretty much entirely in water? You’ve seen rice paddies, you know how much water they use. And so, all that arsenic in the water is slowly leaching into the rice plants. Or rather, not that slowly at all really, because rice absorbs more arsenic from irrigation water than almost any other cereal crop. This is causing those in the arsenic belt serious issues because they’re growing their food and vegetables in arsenic. They’re feeding it to their animals, then they’re preparing their food with it, and eating it themselves. When arsenic is so ubiquitously central to the very thing that people need to survive, it adds up fast. It’s everywhere, and people are getting really sick from it and dying. Lots of the focus on the arsenic comes from the concern over the groundwater itself – and that’s important – it just means that these food supply-related problems aren’t being fully addressed by current policies.

For example, the rice that is used every day in West Bengal are the varieties of Gosai and Satabdi. When measured, arsenic concentrations in this rice measured at five times the limit per kilogram set by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization. People eat it for breakfast, lunch, and, dinner here. How do you go about solving this kind of problem? You can’t get rid of all the arsenic, people need to eat and grow crops, but so far that leads to record levels of arsenic poisoning, developmental issues, and death. So, what – in realistic terms – is the Indian government doing about it?

All in all? Not a great deal. Which is ironic, as that’s exactly what the people living in the arsenic belt have largely been given.

The Responsibility Merry-go-Round

There are a lot of bones to pick with the Indian government’s response to this problem, the first being the sheer apathy from state and national governments to actually do something about the water quality in this part of the country. There just isn’t much political will to fix it because its hard, expensive, and doesn’t have immediate payoff. So, everyone has been kicking the can down the road for decades on this, and only now is it with the wider publicization of the arsenic belt that more measures are being taken to try and combat the poisonous landscape. But even so, ignoring a health problem that could affect up to a quarter of a billion people in your country for decades because it’s kinda hard is pretty pitiful. The Indian government has a space programme, they can tackle this, and not tackling it was a decision. One that they have thankfully started to reverse with the national “Jan Jeevan Mission” that has planned to bring clean water to India’s rural areas since 2019.

And its just going swimmingly, as you can tell from this video. The government can point to the mission, look at various measures that they’ve done and pat themselves on the back, but the reality is a lot more complicated. Officially, drinking water is a state responsibility, while the central government provides financial and technical support. What this means is whenever there’s criticism to hand out, everyone blames each other, and since everyone is kind of responsible, nobody is.

Hence you have political dragging of feet over so many years. The government want the states to fix it, and the states want the government to fix it, and despite finally coming to a solution on how to fix it, the real scandal here is in the delay. That and the implementation.

State governments set up a number of de-arsenification plants – which no are not places where you go to get your arse removed – they’re specific industrial plants designed to clean the groundwater and render it safe to drink. The problem is, most of them failed to remove the arsenic from the water fully. The byproduct when you use plants like this is a kind of arsenic sludge that then has to be disposed of. That’s really hard to do without contaminating the surface water with arsenic, and with time the amount of contamination of arsenic in the groundwater actually increased.

Scientists have long suggested using treated surface water as a better solution from India’s abundance of fresh ponds and lakes, advice that has not been heeded until more recently. And remember all of this equipment needs to be effectively maintained. It’s not enough to build water pumps and all of its associated infrastructure, if the thing breaks and nobody comes to fix it people will simply have no option but to go back to consuming water that is ultimately toxic.

There’s also a lack of real-time water quality monitoring to ensure that treated water is consistently meeting the standards of safety that the government itself has set. Testing is often infrequent and poorly mapped, so we actually don’t know the full extent of the problem either, and without monitoring there’s no way of knowing how far this problem is leeching further into the Indian interior. Arsenic contamination goes aquifer by aquifer, sometimes pump by pump – and what may one day be a safe pump might be unsafe several months or years from now.

Without constant maintenance and a centralised system of engineers checking everything over – pumps, wells, aquifers, filters, all of it – on the regular, every time something changes there’s no way of knowing just how long it will be until its picked up. And it’s easy to see why things are the way they are. The money goes to other channels, the victims are politically easy to ignore, the blame game is easy between the many oversight bodies that exist.

And then when things like filters are being installed, they’re being put in the wrong places.

In Madhubani district for example, one the study found that half of the groundwater samples exceeded WHO’s arsenic limit. Yet not a single arsenic remediation unit was reported as being installed there, whilst other areas that have very little arsenic contamination have received a lot of filter units that they simply don’t need, placing millions at risk of further illness and health complications. The whole approach is just not very collaborative, well-thought-out, organised, proactive, or willing to make the difficult choices. Everyone continues to point the finger from the government’s side, and people are still getting sick.

And unfortunately, the lax approach from the government has communicated conflicting messages to the people living in the arsenic belt. A lack of clarity over which wells are safe, very little maintenance, and the lack of visibility of the issue until its too late leaves some communities resistant to the impacts that would make major health changes in their lives. Some people had no idea that the water they were drinking was contaminated for years, possibly decades.

People get sick in different ways and to differing degrees so the water isn’t always clearly the culprit. People are creatures of habit and routine. If they don’t see something wrong with the water, even if someone tells them that there is, they may choose to use the same well anyway.

They attribute their wide array of symptoms to the possibility of other illnesses, not accepting it’s the water that they’ve drunk – some relatively safely for their entire lives up to that point – has been contaminated, which leads to continual use.

Others might know that the wells are poisoned but don’t have a choice, being unable to find a clean alternative. And they are poor enough not to be able to afford bottled water, or they’re just in too remote an area for it to reach them. The economic burden of arsenic-related illness is significant as well.

There are the healthcare costs, but also the costs that the families lose out on in terms of productivity. A sick family member will struggle to find gainful employment and to work for long periods of time, meaning the families lose out on that vital money. Now imagine that the entire family is sick, it traps entire lineages in poverty.

The government has to meet people halfway, and the people need to do their bit to engage with the education that comes around when water is safe and unsafe to drink. Wells can only function if people know where they are and which ones are safe. They can only carry out rudimentary repairs to keep safe water flowing if they’re given the tools and taught how to use them.

You can paint a red X on every poisonous well in West Bengal, but it’s also about educating the people to change their behaviours, which takes time and patience.

So then, is that it? Is the arsenic belt destined to just poison itself forever? This isn’t an industrial problem; it’s more of a natural one. Are the people who live here doomed to early graves forever?

Well actually… no. Not exactly anyway.

You see on this channel we like to cover the doom and gloom stories a lot because that’s what you like to watch. We see the metrics; you don’t want to see us talk about all the good things happening in the world you little negativity gremlins. But in fact, the closer you look at it, the more that the arsenic belt problem is being taken seriously by some, and the more people are doing to try and fix it.

Firstly, bottled water is becoming more widespread and cheaper in parts of India, and as a result people don’t have to rely as much on potentially unsafe water. Bottled water has also dropped a lot in price as well so it’s now becoming more accessible to people who need it the most as well. You also have India as a whole country slowly rising out of poverty. The country continues to grow economically every year, and as people have more money in their pockets, they’ll either move, demand change from their authorities with their greater access to political capital, or even pay money themselves to help fix the problem in their local areas.

But that’s a little ways off, there are steps being taken right now to remove the dangers like arsenic, uranium, and excess fluorides from the water people access every day. Of course there are things like new wells, filters, and pipelines being introduced thanks to the Jal Jeevan mission, and some of them are even going to good use and ending up in the right places. Similarly old wells and pumps are being decommissioned slowly too and safer, deeper wells are being brought online that have far less arsenic in the groundwater they have access to. A greater focus is now going towards surface-level water treatment over groundwater extraction, which will hopefully prove easier and cheaper for widespread rollout across the whole belt.

These technologies can undoubtedly save so many lives. One study in 2022 followed patients suffering from arsenic poisoning who were given access to water treated using slow sand filtration followed by a disinfectant – a pretty cheap method that works to remove the arsenic – and the results were remarkable. The researchers found that the level of arsenic in the patients’ bodies dropped by between one third and one half after six months. It shows that the arsenic levels in people’s bodies over time can one day be reduced to much safer levels than they’re at right now.

NGOs and individual entrepreneurs are starting to make themselves more known as well, piloting schemes that focus on water quality from large municipal systems to individual households. The technology has already come a long way to remediate contaminated groundwater from city level filtration and water pipelines. Others are choosing to adopt rainwater harvesting and watershed management practices that not only reduce stress on the water system, but ensure a largely arsenic-free supply.

In individual households – even poor ones – you can filter the arsenic out of the water relatively easily and with a little knowledge. Household filters pass water through iron nails and some sand. The arsenic sticks to the nails as they rust, and then gets trapped in the sand or gravel whilst clean water makes it through.

It’s not a perfect solution but it’s a relatively inexpensive way for even the poorest households to be able to filter their water a little. It’s a little more complicated than that in terms of why and how, but that’s the basic gist.

But even despite all that, and the genuinely significant work undertaken by some, there’s a lot of work still to go to truly solve this problem and some major hurdles still remain. Just installing the tech isn’t enough, it needs to be integrated into communities through knowledge and understanding, it then needs to be upkept in rural areas, monitored, acted upon, and made part of the responsibility of the communities they’re there to help, but only as long as they’re given the spare parts and tools, they need to do it themselves. And mostly you need masses of people willing to do the work and talk to others to keep the clean water flowing.

Local outreach, engineers, surveyors, and so much more. It could actually be a relatively big industry for rural India, but so far these fixes just aren’t happening, at least not with any great urgency. The arsenic is still in the food chain, politically there’s still an apathy and finger-pointing galore whilst the sick and dying are ignored.

It’s not even just India, the natural arsenic problem gets carried downstream to Bangladesh, and exists in Nepal too. This is an international health problem, which requires some level of cooperation to eradicate completely.

What happens next on the arsenic belt, nobody can know for sure. But it feels like for the first time in a long time, there’s light at the end of the tunnel and things are moving in the right direction, even if it takes a while to get there.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the arsenic belt?

The arsenic belt is a region in India where high concentrations of arsenic are found in the groundwater, particularly in the rural villages across the northern and eastern parts of the country, including areas along the Ganges and Brahmaputra river systems.

How did the arsenic problem in India’s arsenic belt originate?

The arsenic problem in India’s arsenic belt originated from the installation of shallow tube wells in the 1960s, which pumped arsenic-contaminated groundwater to the surface. This water was initially considered safer than surface water but contained high levels of arsenic and other contaminants.

What are the health impacts of arsenic contamination in the arsenic belt?

Arsenic contamination in the arsenic belt leads to various health issues, including cancers of the skin, bladder, gall bladder, kidneys, and lungs, skin diseases, blood vessel diseases, diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases, neurological effects, liver damage, and reproductive disorders.

How many people have been affected by arsenic contamination in India?

Over one million people’s lives have prematurely ended due to arsenic in the water. Additionally, over 250 million people across India could be exposed to groundwater arsenic above the government’s limits.

What is the government’s response to the arsenic contamination problem?

The Indian government has been criticized for its apathy and delay in addressing the arsenic contamination problem. However, initiatives like the national ‘Jan Jeevan Mission’ aim to bring clean water to rural areas. The government’s response has been slow and often ineffective due to political blame-shifting and inadequate implementation of solutions.

What are some of the challenges in fixing the arsenic contamination problem?

Challenges include the lack of political will, inadequate maintenance of water treatment infrastructure, poor monitoring of water quality, and the economic burden on affected communities. Additionally, the natural geology of the region and agricultural practices contribute to the problem.

What are some potential solutions to the arsenic contamination problem?

Potential solutions include the use of treated surface water, installation of effective water filters, rainwater harvesting, and watershed management practices. Community education and involvement are also crucial for the successful implementation of these solutions.

How does arsenic contamination affect children in the arsenic belt?

Children in the arsenic belt are particularly vulnerable to arsenic damage, which can stunt physical and mental growth. High concentrations of arsenic in their bodies lead to various mental and physical problems, affecting their quality of life and future prospects.

What role do NGOs and entrepreneurs play in addressing the arsenic contamination problem?

NGOs and entrepreneurs are piloting schemes to improve water quality, from large municipal systems to individual households. They are also promoting technologies like rainwater harvesting and household filters to reduce arsenic exposure.

What is the future outlook for the arsenic belt?

While there is light at the end of the tunnel with increasing awareness and efforts to address the problem, significant work remains. The arsenic belt problem requires sustained effort, community involvement, and international cooperation to be fully eradicated.

Sources

• Original Places video: The Region That Can’t Stop Poisoning Itself
• Hero image source by Frédéric Sierakowski / EC - Audiovisual Service / openverse, by.