Statement on TVNZ Sunday programme

TVNZ’s current affairs programme, ‘Sunday’, broadcast on 1 August a story that involved a number of criticisms of UNICEF.

UNICEF believes that the programme contained a number of inaccuracies and failed in its duty to produce a balanced programme. The result was a programme that was both unfair and unbalanced in its portrayal of UNICEF. The following statement outlines the criticisms and addresses each in detail.

Water pumps
One criticism in the TVNZ programme was of the type of water pump used by UNICEF to provide drinking water in developing countries, in that they are poorly designed and cause disease.

UNICEF has been supporting drinking water installation around the world in more than a hundred countries and has found no evidence to support the claim. 

It should be noted that water pumps used by UNICEF are also used by many governments, NGOs and private companies and their widespread use had not highlighted any problems. UNICEF does not promote any particular design of pump but uses a whole range of different models depending on those approved by the government in a particular country of operation.

The claim that a self sterilising stainless steel nozzle and the sun’s heat makes sure ‘everyone gets pure water’ is erroneous. Firstly the only pure water is distilled water and cannot be produced from a hand pump. Solar pasteurisation is the closest treatment method but this requires the temperature of the water to exceed 65 degrees Celsius. Even the conventional use of chlorine does not sterilise water.  

Tube-wells in Bangladesh
The TVNZ programme also included that in Bangladesh in the 1970s and 1980s, tube-wells provided by UNICEF were affected by arsenic, which poisoned people.

By 1972 the Bangladesh Government had constructed 135,000 tube-wells which at the time was about one well for every 400 people. Tube-well water was an important source of pathogen-free water especially because surface water in Bangladesh was, and continues to be, contaminated with faecal bacteria that cause frequently fatal water borne diseases such as cholera and dysentery. These water borne diseases were killing 250,000 children each year.

Following the conflict in 1973 UNICEF supported long-tem initiatives by the government to provide safe drinking water. By the mid-1970s UNICEF was providing support to the Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) to install shallow and deep tube-wells as well as other water sources in different parts of the country; including sand filtration systems and water harvesting.

Well water was tested but not for arsenic as in the 1970s it was not thought that there would be arsenic in the water table. This conclusion arose because at that time it was believed that geological formations that form arsenic (which is usually found in hard rock and volcanic deposits) were not present in Bangladesh and because the heavy rain fall that feed the shallow water tables, which tube-wells accessed, would not contain arsenic.

Health problems arising from arsenic poisoning can take a generation to identify and with some cancers it takes 20 years to establish the link to arsenic.

Indian scientist and researcher Dipankar Chakraborti identified arsenic health problems in West Bengal in 1988 and arsenic was first detected in Bangladesh groundwater in 1993 at Barogharia. UNICEF participated in building this evidence.

Today it is estimated there are more than 10 million tube-wells in rural Bangladesh at a ratio of 11 people per tube-well. Of these, UNICEF has supported the installation of 900,000 through the Government and other NGOs. The other nine million wells were installed by a combination of the government, private companies and individuals (the vast majority) and other international NGOs.

Impact on children and families
Prior to the rolling out of tube-well installations it was estimated that 250,000 children died annually from water borne diseases. Virtually all the population was at risk of water borne disease from contaminated surface water. Today it estimated that 1 in 5 wells have levels of arsenic above the government approved level of 50 parts per billion.

While arsenic contamination is not to be tolerated, nor accepted as normal, the fact is 87 per cent of the population have safe water and the rates of disease and death are therefore less than in the 1970s before the scaling up of tube-wells. UNICEF will continue to work to mitigate the risk and effects of arsenic, and indeed, any water borne disease in every country that it works in.

UNICEF supported installation of less than 10 per cent of the wells in Bangladesh. Therefore to imply that UNICEF was the main culprit in causing deaths of children from arsenic poisoning misrepresents our role and fails to provide any sense of context or perspective.

UNICEF acted in good faith in Bangladesh in the 1970s when we supported tube-well installations and responded to save children’s lives when the problem became known. Indeed, around the world UNICEF leads in reducing child mortality in developing countries.

A recent study published in the Lancet (June, 2010) found that although arsenic increases adult mortality, there have not been studies to show that it increases child mortality. The study was led by Prof. Habib Ahsan based on tracking in a population in Bangladesh. The Government of Bangladesh has estimated there are approximately 38,000 people who have developed arsenic-related skin lesions.

Mitigation & Transparency
The programme also involved the suggestion that UNICEF sat on its hands and failed to take corrective action and be transparent. Nothing is further from the truth. UNICEF actions to mitigate the risk were both transparent and responsible and include:

1. UNICEF supported the DPHE in the first nation-wide survey of tubewells to determine the extent of the problem.
2. UNICEF supported the development of a nationals strategy and campaign targeting mass media, school teachers, religious leaders, health care workers and DHPE engineers.
3. Pumps identified as providing water where arsenic levels were in excess of the recommended government standard were painted red. Water from ‘red’ pumps was not to be used for consumption or washing dishes.
4. UNICEF supported DPHE in reviewing technologies such as filters to remove arsenic, particularly in areas where alternative water sources are limited. Filters are used today in some areas.
5. Deep wells were dug. Testing has allowed villagers to share safe wells and to identify depths where arsenic is less prevalent.
6. Together with DHPE and manufacturers UNICEF developed a more reliable testing kit that could be used in the field and reduced the time delay of sending water samples to laboratories.
7. It was widely believed among the population that arsenic poisoning is contagious. The subsequent social stigma seriously affected women and children, often leading to abandonment. UNICEF has run campaigns to combat this stigma.
8. In November 2004 UNICEF and WHO hosted a regional conference on water quality. At this conference delegates from more than a dozen affected Asian countries gather to discuss arsenic mitigation. In April 2009 UNICEF facilitated a regional conference of 12 Asian countries on arsenic mitigation. We actively promote networks and sharing of information and best practice on arsenic mitigation and prevention.
9. Because of the high level of wells dug by private sources UNICEF promotes public-private partnership for arsenic testing and identifying safe water sources.
10. In recent years UNICEF has conducted extensive work to predict the global extent of arsenic pollution of groundwater and its potential impact on human health, and has provided guidance to all UNICEF country offices on the investigation and mitigation of arsenic contamination.

About UNICEF
UNICEF is the leading children’s agency in the world and is responsible for saving more children’s lives than any other agency. It is leading the development sector in reducing child mortality through immunization (it is the world’s leading purchaser of vaccines), malaria (purchases more malaria nets than any other agency) and other interventions such as the reduction of diarrhoea and respiratory infections.