About NAMIC

 

 

Please Contact: pd@bwspp.org  or  osman@bwspp.org for further Information

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About NAMIC

National Arsenic Mitigation Information Center (NAMIC) 

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Background                                                                         

The Government of Bangladesh (GOB), with the assistance from the World Bank (WB) and Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC), has initiated a national program to address the arsenic problem under the Bangladesh Arsenic Mitigation Water Supply Project (BAMWSP). The objective of the project is to provide arsenic free water supply to rural and urban communities.

One of the efforts of the Government of Bangladesh in addressing the arsenic problem is to identify the causes of arsenic contamination through exhaustive surveys of tube wells, and in-depth assessment of the extent of arsenic contamination of water sources and developing an improved data management system. This will improve the water quality surveillance and monitoring and will help the community and the public sector to aware of the qualitative aspect of the water.

A National Arsenic Mitigation Information Center (NAMIC) has been established within Bangladesh Arsenic Mitigation Water Supply Project. The center was aimed to be the bank of all arsenic related information.  Primarily it was located within the premises of the Project. The information center is a technical and operational entity to facilitate decision- making by providing necessary information, supervised and guided by the Project management. The center is also responsible to collect all sorts of Arsenic related information collected or generated by different stakeholders and to integrate, analyze, store, disseminate the information.

BAMWSP has already completed screening program in 189 Upazilas. Data entry has also been completed for 180 Upazila. These data are now stored in NAMIC Data Server. These data is being used by BAMWSP and other agencies for mitigation activity planning.

 The World Bank and the Government has a vision that NAMIC will be the key center for arsenic mitigation data knowledge and dissemination. They also expect that the activities of NAMIC will continue even beyond the tenure of BAMWSP.

After the expiration of BAMWSP, NAMIC is currently being looking after by BWSPP Project

History                                                                                               Back to Top

NAMIC has been established within the framework of Bangladesh Arsenic Mitigation Water Supply Project as per the First Project Proforma (April, 1999). NAMIC was designed as a technical and operational entity to facilitate decision-making by providing necessary information. It is being supervised and guided by the Project Director, BAMWSP.

Role and Mandate

 At the beginning, following roles and responsibilities were targeted for NAMIC. NAMIC could not perform all these responsibilities as because NAMIC was not provided with all relevant specialists. NAMIC is responsible to:

·         Collect all sorts of Arsenic related information, which are gathered or generated by different stakeholders and to integrate, analyze, store and disseminate the information to the users,

·         Compile and analyse data on the hydro-geological and water quality situation as well as other technical, health, economic and social data that are relevant in the development priorities and strategy,

·         Organize existing data,

·         Develop and implement strategies for further investigations and monitoring,

·         Initiate public health and mass media campaigns,

·         Manage, interpret and disseminate all relevant hydrological, water quality, health, and socioeconomic and technical information necessary for PMU to devise strategies, prioritize action and monitor progress,

·         Interact with a network of other established research and study agencies those will be both providers and users of information,

·         Develop a Consultative Group of the NAMIC to ensure quality, comprehensiveness and consistency of the data,

·         Prepare quarterly reports in printed and electronic form synthesizing the latest data and information on the arsenic problem,

·         Publish monthly/quarterly newsletter/bulletin of the project,

·         Provide support to DPHE, GSB, BWDB, professional/educational institutions, NGOs and other agencies to strengthen their data collection, systematic analysis, compilation, and will make information accessible for strategic decisions for arsenic mitigation,

·         Organize larger-scale mass media and social marketing campaigns at national level related to health related aspects of arsenic contamination.

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  Data Collection

NAMIC presently do not collect any primary data. The bulk of the data came from the national screening program for tube well screening and patient’s identification conducted by BAMWSP and other stakeholders. It was greed by all the stakeholders that all the information collected and generated by different stakeholders will be submitted to NAMIC. NAMIC will store, process and disseminate all these data. 

Being a part of BAMWSP, NAMIC was directly involved in processing the BAMWSP screening data that is the major portion of the national screening program. BAMWSP screened 189 upazila out of 271 arsenic prone upazila, which is 70%. The survey was conducted with the help of support organizations (NGO’s), Local Government Organizations and involving local people.

 NAMIC has developed data entry program to enter the survey data. NAMIC has also developed quality control process, data storage system, and data analyses. So far NAMIC has processed 180 Upazila survey data. The data is in ready format and most of the information is continuously being distributed in several ways. 

Data from the major stakeholders in the form of electronic format are also being collected continuously. So far UNICEF has provided 43 Upazila data, DANIDA has provided 8 upazila data, WPP has provided 15 upazila data, Asia Arsenic Network (AAN) has provided 1 upazila data. WorldVision has submitted screening information in hard copy format. NAMIC is now managing this information.

Data Availability

 NAMIC has so far processed data of 245 Upazila of National screening program. Majority (180 Upazila) of the data came from BAMWSP. Though all the stakeholders used the same format for survey, but due to the proper data management, different stakeholders except BAMWSP could not provided all the information from the format. All the information listed below are fully available for BAMWSP surveyed Upazila. Some of the information is missing in the others data. For example, UNICEF did not survey all the households; they had surveyed only those households that have a tube well. But BAMWSP, WPP, AAN surveyed all houses. UNICEF did not identified patients for each household; they had conducted village level camps to identify patients.

 Tubewell Information:

Household Information:

·         Members (Male, Female),

·         TW ownership

·         Source of Drinking Water

BBS Data:

·          Administrative Names and Geocode Up to Mouza and Village level

 Spatial (GIS) Data:

·         Administrative boundary - District, Upazila, Union and Mouza

·         River Network, Road Network

·         Geological District Boundaries

·         Water Level Stations, Rainfall Stations, Water Quality Stations

Other Data:

·         Water level Data of Bangladesh for last ten years

·         Rainfall Data of last ten years

·         Geological Characteristics

Data Integration with GIS:

All the above data are now integrated with GIS data. All kinds of required maps and Analysis can be done.

Non-BAMWSP Data Integration:

 To make NAMIC as an Effective and constructive role-playing national center, All Arsenic related information collecting and generating by other organizations should be shared with NAMIC. Different stakeholders have already been agreed to submit their data to NAMIC. NAMIC has so far received data (Partial / Completed / Summary) from UNICEF, WVI, WPP, NGO-Forum, AAN. Database structure and tools used by different organizations are not same. NAMIC has already developed a well-structured database and stored all BAMWSP data in a highly configured Data Server. NAMIC is now converting data of other organizations to make them compatible and integrated with the NAMIC Central Server data.

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 Data Analysis readily available at NAMIC

Some analysis on collected data have already done, which are:

·         District, Upazila, Union and Village wise Arsenic Status

·         Patients list with Symptoms

·         Analysis on depth and As Concentration

·         Analysis on TW Age, Depth and As Concentration

·         Geographical (GIS) Analysis of Depth & As Concentration

·         Geographical (GIS) Comparison of Safe and Contaminated Wells

·         80-100%, 60% - 80%, 40%-60% Contaminated Village List

·         Maps of Upazilas showing Contamination Status up to Mouza level

Data Storage

Data storage and backup system is an important function for any information unit. NAMIC has developed a very effective and integrated system for data storage and backup.

 Data in the form of soft copies are mainly received from the data entry firm that was contracted for BAMWSP’s survey data entry. The other stakeholders namely UNICEF, DANIDA, SDC-WPP, JICA-AAN are also providing soft copies of the screened data.

 All of these data receiving is in MS ACCESS format. NAMIC has developed a standard RDBMS based on the survey form commonly used by all stakeholders. A high-configured data server has been installed in NAMIC. The ORACLE database is being used for storage of this huge number of data. Data receiving in the MS ACCESS format are being upsized in the ORACLE database to make a seamless integrated database.

The storage and backup of data is being made in different ways,

v      One CD for one upazila in MS ACCESS format

v      One CD for one Upazila in Oracle format

v      One hard copy of each upazila containing each and every TW.

v      Upazila, Union and Village wise Summary tables are created and stored in CD’s and different workstations

v      Data books containing summary data some analyses were published.

So all the data is kept in proper and safe custody.

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 Dissemination

Dissemination is one of the vital roles of NAMIC. The information is useless unless the users use it. NAMIC has been disseminating and distributing data and information in variety of ways.

-          NAMIC has been maintaining the website of BAMWSP. This website is the major open platform for distributing data. The web site (www.bamwsp.org) contains screening result up to union level, Arsenic policy, Mitigation status, different facts of arsenic, Project Status report, news items etc. The website being found very useful as it got huge responses inside and specially outside the country.

-          NAMIC has so far published 5 volumes of Newsletter that contained the status of project activities and the results of arsenic screening program. The newsletters were distributed to all relevant stakeholders, concerned government and private agencies, and being distributed to the visitors visiting NAMIC.

-          NAMIC has also published 4 volumes of data book that contained summary result of the screening program of BAMWSP and other stakeholders. The books were distributed to major relevant stakeholders, concerned government and private agencies. These books were found very useful created demand for increased circulation.

-          The majority and importantly the information is being taken by Government and private agencies, Researchers, NGO’s by directly contacting NAMIC. The project management is quite liberal and do not follow any critical formalities to provide data. The only formality is that the interested organization or person has to inform the project director regarding their demand. This kind of users comes everyday to NAMIC for several arsenic related information.

Some lists of requested data by different organizations/Individuals are shown below:

Requested Data:

·         List of Arsenic Prone Upazilas.

·         Summary Result of 42 Upazila.

·         Project location of different Stakeholders

·         List of Upazilas having Arsenicosis patients.

·         Addresses of patients.

·         Arsenic concentration for specific areas.

·         Detail data of particular areas.

·         TW ownership information

·         TW type information

·         TW Depth, Arsenic concentration data

·         Summary result up to Village level. List of 100%, 80-100%, 40-80%, below 40% contaminated villages.

·         Upazila wise Depth Versus Concentration Comparison.

·         Upazila wise TW age versus concentration comparison.

·         List of priority Upazila/Unions with Household numbers.

·         List of Technological Options provided by BAMWSP

·         Project Status report

Maps:

·         Map: Arsenic Prone Upazilas in Bangladesh

·         Map: Project Location of different Stakeholders.

·         Map: Location of 6,36 and 147 Upazilas

·         Map: Result of the screening program

·         Map: Result of Municipal area production well screening Program

·         Map: Geological Districts of Bangladesh

·         Map: Union wise suitable options till 1993, Union wise feasible options.

·         Map: Upazila Base maps

·         Map: Upazila maps showing Arsenic Results.

 NAMIC has provided various data to different organizations, some of the users are:

·         LGED

·         Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC)

·         Department of Environment

·         Geological Survey of Bangladesh (GSB)

·         Arsenic Contamination Mitigation Project, DGHS

·         UNICEF

·         UNDP

·         World Health Organization,

·         FAO

·         DPHE-DANIDA Water Supply and Sanitation Component

·         DFID Bangladesh,

·         Embassy of Switzerland/SDC

·         SDC-WPP

·         Japan Intl Coop Agency (JICA)

·         World Vision Bangladesh

·         Arsenic and Environmental Epidemiologist, ICDDR, B

·         AusAID.

·         British Geological Department

·         OCETA

·         CIDA

·         USAID,

·         Environmental Research Laboratory

·         Professor M. Feroze Ahmed

·         Environmental Research Laboratory, Department of Chemistry

·         Dept of Soil Science, Dhaka University (DU)

·         Dept of Geology, Dhaka University (DU).

·         Dept of Mining & Geology

·         University of Rajshahi (RU).

·         Association of Development Agencies in Bangladesh (ADAB)

·         Department of Agricultural Chemistry

·         Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymenshing

·         Dhaka Community Hospital (DCH)

·         Dr. Bilqis Amin Hoque, (EPRC)

·         Centre for Development Innovation and Practices (CDIP),

·         CARE Bangladesh

·         Water Resources Planning Organization (WARPO)

·         Director, Programs, Integrated Service for Development of Children & Mothers (ISDCM)

·         Doctors and students of Different medical colleges

·         Teachers and students of different universities

·         Students conducting thesis/research under universities outside Bangladesh

·         Questions from Parliament members

Presently NAMIC do not have any data dissemination policy. Upon request of user, NAMIC now disseminate data to the user(s). NAMIC also do not have any protocols of relationship with the data users and data providers.

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Activities are being performed by the NAMIC

ü      Selection of  “Hot Spot” Upazilas for National Emergency Screening Program on the basis of reviewing existing data of DPHE/DFID/BGS study

ü      Assisted in developing the “survey forms” for tube well screening and patient identification.

ü      Developed Data Entry Software for NESP-I  6 Upazilas Survey data

ü      Entry and management of NESP-I 6 Upazilas data

ü      Prepared highly contaminated (80% and above) village list for emergency mitigation and Less contaminated (40%-80%) village list for normal mitigation on the basis of survey result

ü      Publication of the Project Newsletters

ü      Coordinated in developing the Common “Survey Forms” in consultation with other stakeholders

ü      Assisted in developing “Field Survey Guide” for second phase of survey

ü      Assisted in developing “TOT Manual” for Sub-Project planning and implementation

ü      Data Entry and management of the field survey data of 36 Upazila.

ü      Designed and developed the web site of BAMWSP for dissemination of relevant information for public use (www.bamwsp.org)

ü      A library has been established.

ü      Detail Analysis of 42 Upazila Survey Data

ü      Developed User friendly Customized software to view, query and printing of Upazila and Pourashava production well data.

ü      Coordination with different stakeholders in order to avoid duplication and optimisation of resources in the field of Arsenic.

ü      Screening data has been integrated with GIS. Integration has been completed upto mouza level. Upazila Maps were prepared showing Mouzawise screening results.

ü      Maps prepared showing suitable water supply technology options till 1993 and present feasible technology options in arsenic prone Upazilas based on DPHE and BAMWSP Experiences.

ü      Maps prepared showing Geographical Distribution of Safe and Contaminated Tube wells by age and Depth using GIS.

ü      Prepared a Geological Zoning Map showing Different geo-districts of Bangladesh. 

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