High amounts of Arsenic in well water are afflicting as much as 150.000 rural Cambodians.
Chhiev Kimlorn, the village chief, said that 10 of the community’s 26 wells had
been tested. According to a document she was given by UNICEF, seven of them were
found to contain elevated arsenic levels.
Three were found to contain
arsenic levels as high as 500 parts per billion – more than 50 times the limit
considered safe by the World Health Organisation, and more than 10 times the
limit considered safe by the Ministry of Rural Development.
This is why I'm a big fan of environmental government policies. The individual villages aren't capable of fixing it on their own. They need the government to regulate and protect their water supply. Tap water can do only so much for these villager before they run out.
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This is why I'm a big fan of environmental government policies. The individual villages aren't capable of fixing it on their own. They need the government to regulate and protect their water supply.
You hit the nail on the head there. What's causing the elevated arsenic levels? Is it a natural thing? I know some of the processing involved in strip mining gold produces arsenic as a by-product.
I suspect it's from agriculture. Some Khmer people have been using arsenic as pesticide.
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