Environmental policy and administrative management

Arsenic is one of the slow poisons which enter human body mostly via contaminated water. In 2002, arsenic survey was done in 20 Terai district in Nepal. The result was rather shocking and alarming. Of the 21,763 tubewell tested, 5% exceed 50 ppb and 21-31% exceed 10% (Permissible arsenic WHO standard for drinking water is 10 ppb). The statistics also showed that 10 million people in Terai use well for drinking and cooking. This means that at least 3.1 million Nepalese are at risk from contaminated arsenic. In 2003, preliminary results in Nawalparasi district showed that soil from grazed land next to jungle soils have twice the soil arsenic than the jungle soils. The higher content of soil arsenic in non-jungle or grazed land indicates that jungle plants are uptaking the arsenic from the soil. The project aimed to providing arsenic free water thereby reducing the eye disease and skin disease such as spotted melanosis and hyperkeratosis. The other main aspect of the project is to carry out research in identifying arsenic hyperbioaccumulator plants, role of soil microbes in absorbing the arsenic and study the role and effect of arsenic in forest ecosystem and food chain. The project is implemented in Santapur VDC of Rautahat and Nadawa, Sunwal VDCs of Nawalparasi.

Nepal