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Bangladesh
Scale: Over 8 million hand drilled wells have been constructed to provide drinking water for Bangladesh’s population of 140 million.

Expertise: In Bangladesh, hand drilled wells are primarily constructed by small scale private enterprises. Hand pumps are sold by local traders.

Techniques: Hand sludging

Pumps installed: Mainly the Bangladesh No 6 pump.

History: Tube wells have been drilled for at least 100 years in Bangladesh. UNICEF worked with the Department of Public Health Engineering to install tube wells in the 1970s. The 1980s saw this technology be taken up on a wide scale by the private sector, who installed millions of tube wells. By 2000, an estimated 80% of Bangladeshi’s were using these tube wells for drinking water (Smith et al, 2000). By 2008, 97% of the total population relied on tube wells for drinking water.  

Standards: None.

Average Costs: In UNICEF Bangladesh Programmes, the cost of a hand drilled well with pump is about $150.

Suitable Areas: Most of the country excluding some of the Chittagong Hill tracts. However, wide spread arsenic    contamination of the shallow aquifer has led to questions regarding the suitability of this option. UNICEF recommends testing of arsenic is for each potential well.

Estimated potential target population: By 2008, an estimated 97% of the total population (140 million) relied on tube wells for drinking water.


Water Quality: Unfortunately, 1993 witnessed the confirmation that there was arsenic in the groundwater in at concentrations of over the maximum level recommended by the WHO (10µg/l) and Bangladesh (50µg/l). The seriousness of this problem became increasingly apparent in the second half of the 1990s. In 1998 it was estimated that 21 million people were exposed to arsenic levels of over (50µg/l). The long term health effects if ingesting high concentrations of arsenic include skin lesions, skin cancer and internal cancer (bladder, lung, liver and kidney). However, the effects take 10 to 40 years to manifest themselves (Source: Smith et al, 2000).

Organisations involved: Numerous small scale private sector drillers.

Documentation:

  • Smith A., Lingas, E.O. and Rahman M. 2000. Contamination of drinking-water by arsenic in Bangladesh: a public health emergency.  Bulletin of the World Health Organisation, 78 (9)
  • WSP (2000) The Growth of Private Sector Participation and Rural Water Supply in Rural Bangladesh. Water and Sanitation Programme (WSP), Washington DC, USA.
  • UNICEF (2008). Arsenic Mitigation in Bangladesh. UNICEF

Independent Evaluations: None found.

Last update of information: April 2009