“After coming back from Bangladesh I did some reading up on the arsenic poisoning issue and was appalled by the story, with an estimated 25-36 million people at risk of poisoning:

The arsenic in Bangladesh is the greatest case of mass poisoning the world has ever experienced. In the sheer magnitude and numbers of victims it exceeds the Chernobyl disaster nearly 100 fold
…
The World Bank and UNICEF are morally (even if not legally) responsible because they installed tube wells without checking for arsenic, and the British Geological Survey (BGS) was delinquent in publishing a paper as late as 1995 saying that the water was safe to drink, but forgetting about arsenic. Indeed a lawsuit was instituted in the UK in 2003 claiming that BGS are legally liable for the illnesses of the sufferers. The Court of Appeals dismissed the suit (in 2004) because of a lack of jurisdiction but on January 25th 2005 the House of Lords agreed to consider the case. In January 2006 the hearing date was postponed to May 2006.

This case has now finally reached the House of Lords, although it has been almost completely ignored by the media. The exception is of course The Guardian. There is also a useful press release from the solicitors handling the case. The next key step is the judgement, which is expected in late July – i.e. just before the Summer recess.

I was wondering if there is anything we could do to raise the profile of the case, and of activists in the area like WaterAid? Is anyone interested in trying to take this further?”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 31st, 2006 at 7:16 pm and is filed under Fairtrade, Greenery. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.