ater Supply Project (BAMWSP), recorded 98.67 % tube wells in Tamata Union, where Azagora belongs to, were arsenic-contaminated. ―About two years ago‖, Mafiqul continued, ―tumor developed above the right heel. I underwent surgery at DMCH to have the tumor removed, but it was never cured. Rather it became larger and larger day by day.‖ This was why he held the radiotherapy completion certificate by DMCH. He showed us the affected part by lifting a piece of white cloth which he was using to protect it from infection from dusty air. I was trembled at the sight of the condition. The part was showing flesh, wet and red, in a circle of about 5 cm in diameter, surrounded by dry, blackened skin. I told him to visit Dr. Ekhlasur at the Yamagata Dhaka Friendship Hospital for consultation since he was a reliable orthopedic surgeon with the state-of-art operation skills. Mafiqul left our office hobbling with the right hand on the shoulder of the lock mechanic. Walking must have been giving him
pain. The following day, Dr. Ekhlasur called me and said: ―What I can do to save Mafiqul‘s life would be to amputate the lower part of his right leg and give him an artificial leg. Operation cost would be around Tk. 50,000.‖ Having heard the doctor‘s words, Mafiqul gave up the operation. Where on earth can I procure such a big amount of money? — he must have thought. He was a farmer with a very small piece of land and also ran a grocery shop in the village. In recent years, however, he was unable to do any farming work due to the pain from keratosis on palms and the tumor around the heel. The shop, too, was very small and his customers were only within the village. In January 2006 a TV director came with a cameraman from Japan. They shot Mafiqul and Noorjahan, his wife, in Azagora, and later followed him to DMCH in Dhaka when he needed further treatment. His doctor told the TV director that in fact Mafiqul was suffering from lung and lever cancers and those were at terminal stages. Their documentary film was broadcast in March in Japan and a DVD of the programme reached me in Dhaka in April. In a scene, Noorjahan was telling the interviewer: ―When I ask him how he is, he always says he is getting better. But I know he is getting weaker and weaker, and more serious. I am very worried indeed‖. Then she wiped her tears with her saree. ●Lutfor Rahman, Marua Village, Jessore District At a monthly staff meeting held at our Jessore office on 3rd March 2006, Aklima Chowdhury, Patient Support Coordinator, reported that Lutfor Rahman of Marua village was complaining of breathing problem with occasional pain on the chest. She showed a copy of his X-ray report, in which it was written that dense opacity was seen in the lower zone of the left lung. Is he, too, suffering from lung cancer as Aziz? Fear ran through my body with shiver. Marua is one of highly arsenic-affected villages in Bangladesh with many patients. Aklima records 164 names for the village as patients for her to monitor their health condition periodically. Lutfor Rahman was admitted at the Yamagata Dhaka Friendship Hospital (YDFH) for examinations on 14th March for five days. It was Dr. Ekhlasur‘s opinion that Lutfor needed some treatment on the lung, though he did not identify the cause of the water in the lung. It might be due to just a kind of inflammation, or tuberculosis, or fibrosis, or cancer. **********
●Spring 2006 Late April there came sad news that Mafiqul passed away in the evening of 24th. On 29th I visited his home in Azagora to convey condolences accompanied by Sayed Sunny, our Programme Officer, who had called on him a number of times while he was in the Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Noorjahan said Mafiqul had shown no appetite for more than a week prior to his death. At about 4 p.m. on 24th he started spitting up blood and then his consciousness seemed faint. A village doctor was called in but he just watched the patient after murmuring: ―The case is beyond my ability‖. ―My husband breathed his last breath at 8:30 p.m. that evening‖ – having said so, Noorjahan burst into te