Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene November - December 2016 vol.11 No.6 | Page 15

NEWS in brief

Global Highlights

Red river near Arctic nickel plant examined by
inspectors

Red river near Arctic nickel plant examined by inspectors

Russian environmental inspectors are trying to establish
why a river near the Norilsk Nickel industrial complex in
the Arctic has turned blood-red.
Dramatic pictures of the discoloured Daldykan river have
been posted widely on Russian media.
The government daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta says a leaking
slurry pipeline carrying waste copper-nickel concentrate
could be to blame.
Norilsk Nickel is the world’s largest nickel and palladium
producer.
Its vast furnaces were built on the Taimyr Peninsula, in
the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia, in the Soviet era. The
mining group has a production facility called Nadezhda by
the Daldykan river. But company officials said they were
not aware of any river pollution from the plant.
Billionaire oligarch Vladimir Potanin is president of
Norilsk Nickel.
Water Crisis in Bangladesh

The WHO estimates that 97% of the people of
Bangladesh have access to water and only 40% percent
have proper sanitation. With a staggering 60% of the
population that has to endure unsafe drinking water, the
nation is in danger. The availability of this water greatly
fluctuates throughout the year as the warmer season brings
massive amounts of water in frequent monsoons and the
cooler season brings drought. The infrastructure cannot
adequately deal with the barrage of water in monsoon
season so the water is not saved for the drier months.
Of the water that is available, over 80 percent is used for
agriculture.
The great rivers (Brahmaputra, Meghna, and Ganges)
all originate in other countries and the amount of water
that eventually gets to Bangladesh is greatly limited by the
booming populations of China and India. Only 7% of the
total land that creates the watersheds for these rivers is in
Bangladesh. Therefore the Bengalis have very little control
over how much water they receive from these sources.
Compounding the problem is the rising salinity of the
water, which has many contributing factors. One of these
factors is the construction of the Farraka Barrage, a
structure in India that diverts water from the Ganges to
irrigate Indian soil. This decreases the flow of the Ganges
thereby causing the salinity to increase. Salinity is also
rising due to the sheer number of shrimp farms in various
bodies of fresh water. Climate change has also caused
rising sea levels which are claiming precious water from
freshwater river deltas. This increase in salinity affects the
soil and the quality of the ground water.
Not only is the potable water limited but the groundwater,
which is used by nearly 90% of the population, is also
contaminated with arsenic. According to the WHO, the
levels of arsenic have contributed to thelargest mass
poisoning in history, affecting an estimated30-35 million
people in Bangladesh. Exposure to arsenic can cause
cancer and severely damage many integral systems in the
human body. Arsenic has been shown to be the cause of
death for 1 out of every 5 people in Bangladesh.
As a result, the Bangladeshi government is trying to
improve the infrastructure to improve rainwater capture
and access to safe drinking water. Contaminated wells
have been marked to warn the people away but the
painted markers are fading and more than 100,000 safe
water points have been created. New arsenic treatment
technologies are also being investigated by the Bangladesh
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.

Water Crisis in Bangladesh

However, in order to make a significant impact, the
government needs to reinvigorate the arsenic policies
established in the 90s , and change the maximum exposure
amount from 50 micrograms to 10 micrograms (as
recommended by the WHO).

Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • November - December 2016

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