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Source: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=90406
NEPAL: Increasing use of filters for arsenic-contaminated water
Access to clean water remains a challenge in Nepal's Terai region
KATHMANDU, 7 September 2010 (IRIN) - Aid organizations are distributing water filters to some 37,000 households in the Terai plains of southern Nepal who are being slowly poisoned by drinking arsenic-contaminated water.
According to a soon to be published report by the government and the UN, 1.8 percent of the country?s wells have arsenic contamination exceeding the Nepal standard of 50 parts per billion (ppb). An additional 5.6 percent exceed the World Health Organization (WHO) standard of 10 ppb, said Madhav Pahari, water, sanitation and hygiene specialist for the UN Children?s Fund (UNICEF) in Nepal. That is a total of 84,411 contaminated wells.
?There is some [arsenic-contaminated water], but not like in Bangladesh,? said Birendra Shakya, chief of the water quality section for the Department of Water Supply and Sewerage...
NEPAL: Increasing use of filters for arsenic-contaminated water
Access to clean water remains a challenge in Nepal's Terai region
KATHMANDU, 7 September 2010 (IRIN) - Aid organizations are distributing water filters to some 37,000 households in the Terai plains of southern Nepal who are being slowly poisoned by drinking arsenic-contaminated water.
According to a soon to be published report by the government and the UN, 1.8 percent of the country?s wells have arsenic contamination exceeding the Nepal standard of 50 parts per billion (ppb). An additional 5.6 percent exceed the World Health Organization (WHO) standard of 10 ppb, said Madhav Pahari, water, sanitation and hygiene specialist for the UN Children?s Fund (UNICEF) in Nepal. That is a total of 84,411 contaminated wells.
?There is some [arsenic-contaminated water], but not like in Bangladesh,? said Birendra Shakya, chief of the water quality section for the Department of Water Supply and Sewerage...