Community wells that extend deeper than most private wells are crucial for reducing exposure to groundwater arsenic (As) in rural Bangladesh. This study evaluates the impact on access to safe drinking water of 915 such intermediate (90-150 m) and deep (>150 m) wells across a 180 km2 area where a total of 48,790 tubewells were tested with field kits in 2012-13. Half the shallow private wells meet the Bangladesh standard of 50 µg/L for As in drinking water, whereas 92% of the intermediate and deep wells meet the more restrictive World Health Organization guideline for As in drinking water of 10 µg/L. As a proxy for water access, distance calculations show that 29% of shallow wells with >50 µg/L As are located within walking distance (100 m) of at least one of the 915 intermediate or deep wells. Similar calculations for a hypothetical more even distribution of deep wells show that 74% of shallow wells with >50 µg/L As could have been located within 100 m of the same number deep wells. These observations and well-usage data suggest that community wells in Araihazar, and probably elsewhere in Bangladesh, were not optimally allocated by the government because of elite capture.

中文翻译：

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为减少孟加拉国砷暴露而对社区深井的分配不公平。

比大多数私人井延伸得更深的社区井对于减少孟加拉国农村地区地下水砷的暴露至关重要。这项研究评估了2012-13年间在180 km2区域内的915口此类中井（90-150 m）和深井（> 150 m）对获取安全饮用水的影响，该区域总共使用现场套件测试了48,790口管井。一半的浅层私人水井符合孟加拉国饮用水中砷含量为50 µg / L的标准，而92％的中级和深井达到了限制性更强的世界卫生组织有关饮用水中砷含量为10 µg / L的准则。作为取水的一种替代方法，距离计算表明，有29％的> 50 µg / L As浅井位于至少915座中井或深井之一的步行距离（100 m）之内。假设深井分布更均匀，类似的计算表明，> 50 µg / L As的浅井中有74％可能位于相同数量深井的100 m以内。这些观察和良好的使用数据表明，由于精英捕获，政府并未对阿拉伊哈扎尔以及孟加拉国其他地方的社区井进行最佳分配。