Introduction

Arsenic in Bangladesh well water:

Arsenic, at concentrations exceeding Drinking Water Standards, has been found in groundwater that is being used for drinking, cooking, and other uses by millions of people in many regions of the world. This problem is particularly acute for people in Bangladesh. It is vital to identify wells with unsafe arsenic levels, and determine the best solution for the people to have access to arsenic-safe¹ potable water. One option in Bangladesh is the use of technologies to filter the well water to remove the arsenic.

The Bangladesh Environmental Technology Verification-Support to Arsenic Mitigation (BETV-SAM) project is focused on the INDEPENDENT testing, for performance claim verification, of technologies claimed to remove arsenic to below the Government of Bangladesh limit for drinking water (50 parts per billion).

Environmental Technology Verification (ETV)

An Environmental Technology Verification Program tests the performance of a technology using specific test criteria or protocols.

Verification is necessary for ensuring credibility of claims of environmental technologies' performance. Environmental technology proponents such as manufacturers of devices for water treatment sometimes claim that their technology is able to operate in certain locations or certain conditions that verification testing reveals are not suited to that technology. At times, performance claims are made for which no quality independent supporting test data are presented to support. Use of an inappropriate or inadequately tested technology could adversely affect consumer health, for example, if a technology is used for treating drinking water that it cannot properly treat.

Technology performance claim verification helps ensure that when an individual or organization acquires and uses a technology, the technology has been independently tested under specified conditions. The performance claim verification process transparently shows how well that technology operated under those specified conditions.

What were ETV-AM and BETV-SAM?

The Bangladesh Environmental Technology Verification-Support to Arsenic Mitigation (BETV-SAM) project was a bilateral development assistance project between the Governments of Bangladesh and Canada. The Project tested arsenic removal technologies in Bangladesh for performance claim verification. It involved several partners.

The first phase of this performance verification work in Bangladesh took place under the Environmental Technology Verification-Arsenic Mitigation (ETV-AM) Program. This earlier program is also described on this website.

¹ "Arsenic-safe" is a terminology used to indicate that total As < 50 µg/L, i.e. below the permissible value for potable water in Bangladesh (Government of Bangladesh: Ministry of Environment and Forest (1997) Environment Conservation Rules: Schedule 3.)