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SANGSAD BHABAN, June 11, 2024 (BSS) - Local Government and Rural Development

and Cooperatives Minister Md Tajul Islam today said the government will
install a total of 10,65,000 arsenic-free water sources in rural areas of the
country by 2025 under different projects.

"The local government and rural development division has undertaken various
initiatives to ensure arsenic-free water at rural areas," he told the Jatiya
Sangsad (JS) while responding to a question from a treasury bench member
Morshed Alam of Noakhali-2 constituency in the House with Speaker Dr Shirin
Sharmin Chaudhury in the chair.

The Directorate of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) has been implementing
various projects in rural areas, the minister said, adding: "Besides, deep
tube wells, the government will also supply water through pipeline, arrange
rain water preservation, digging of ponds, rehabilitation of ponds,
installation of solar-run pond sand filter. These initiatives will reduce 5-6
percent of arsenic risk by 2025 for those who are at present in arsenic
risk."

He told the House that the Statistic Bureau of Bangladesh (BBS) and UNICEF
jointly conducted a Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) in 2019 and
found that 11 percent of the total population is at arsenic risk.