Wagtech Arsenic Test Kits Manufactured Locally in Bangladesh

Following on from the success of the established range of arsenic testing products Wagtech is now producing a simple, low-cost, portable arsenic visual detection kit in Bangladesh.

Whilst the established Wagtech Arsenic testing products are used widely in Bangladesh and the surrounding countries, given the sheer scale of the arsenic contamination there then it became clear that these kits may still be too expensive to be used in the numbers necessary to conduct an effective screening program. It was also important to allow testing at household level by the local population. The aim was to develop a simpler, more cost-effective kit to allow governments and development organisations to buy locally at a lower cost and conduct mass testing programs throughout the region.

The project was part funded with a grant from DFID in the UK, specifically the Business Linkage Challenge Fund ( BLCF). The Business Linkages Challenge Fund makes grants for the development of business linkages that improve competitiveness and benefit the poor. Grants are allocated on a competitive basis to ensure that public funds are used to best effect. Wagtech was successful in receiving a grant on the basis that for every pound invested under the BLCF, Wagtech would committ to doubling that investment.

This project aimed to establish a local manufacturing base, employing local people and providing opportunity and jobs for the long term.

The kits are now put together by a team of local employees based at the Wagtech Regional Research Centre in Dhaka. These low-cost kits use the same innovative technology as the standard Arsenic testing products and are fully compatible with all the exisiting Wagtech products. Considerable investment has been made to ensure there are significant levels of stock of these kits at all times.

At Wagtech, our desire was to provide accurate, low cost arsenic testing to an increased percentage of the affected local population. To create a regional Arsenic Centre of Excellence.  A local resource that can be used by anyone with an interest in Arsenic testing technologies. To the satisfaction of all the parties involved this project has been extremely successful. However, we realised that once an arsenic problem has been identified, the problem then has to be rectified. In our eyes, testing and mitigation go hand in hand.

Due to our position at the forefront of field based Arsenic testing technology it was felt we were ideally placed to promote sustainable local mitigation solutions.

In partnership with IACD, a not-for-profit development organisation based in Dhaka, Bangladesh, our objective is to improve the social, economic and environmental conditions of Bangladesh’s poorest people by identifying, developing, testing and finally, promoting a private sector marketing approach in the delivery of these affordable technologies.

In this context, these deliverable technologies must be produced locally and sold to the poor at a fair market price through a private sector supply chain. IACD’s work is specifically focused on Water and Sanitation issues and in this project, our aim wais to address and aid those people in the project area who currently are faced with serious arsenic contamination of their groundwater and have no alternative clean water source. The local population in Bangladesh are now benefiting directly from the affordable solutions Wagtech is providing.