Britain’s highest court, the House of Lords, has dismissed a case brought by Binod Sutradhar against the British Geological Survey (BGS) [1, 2]. Sutradhar claimed the BGS was negligent in not testing for arsenic during a water evaluation in Bangladesh in 1992. The panel of five judges at the House of Lords all agreed that there was no duty on the BGS to test for arsenic, upholding a similar ruling made by the court of appeal in 2004 [3]. "In my opinion the claim is hopeless," said Lord Hoffman in his ruling on the case.

If the legal action had been successful it could have cost the British taxpayer millions of pounds in compensation. It would also have set a precedent in making development aid more accountable.

Bangladeshi medical and legal experts have expressed frustration over the rejection of the lawsuit. The Lords' decision means that nobody is responsible for the sufferings of millions of people in Bangladesh affected by arsenic poisoning, said Shahdeen Malik, a member of Sutradhar's legal counsel. It has eliminated the last ray of hope for arsenic victims counting how many days they have left to live, according to Quazi Quamruzzaman, chair of the Dhaka Community Hospital.

[1] House of Lords, Judgements - Sutradhar (FC) (Appellant) v. Natural Environment Research Council (Respondents), 5 July 2006. UKHL 33

[2] Negligence law: will the Bangladesh arsenic case make foreign aid more accountable?, Source Weekly, 17 May 2006

[3] Bangladesh: UK appeal court throws out arsenic compensation case, Source Weekly, 23 Feb 2004

Source: BBC, 5 Jul 2006 ; Mustak Hossain, SciDev.Net, 7 Jul 2006

Tags: policies & legislation, water-related diseases