Abstract
The widespread health impacts on millions of people from consumption of arsenic (As) contaminated groundwater of the Ganges delta necessitate an effort to locate As-safe aquifer zones and to develop a sustainable aquifer management policy. We look into the aquifer geometries, sediment characteristics and groundwater As concentrations to develop an understanding of the factors that inhibit As invasion/mobilization within the As-safe aquifers. However, the sustainability of the present-day safe aquifer is at risk due to the heavy groundwater pumping for irrigation and thus, promoting water conserving agricultural practices is extremely vital. We suggest that, formulating a sustainable As mitigation plan should also involve the non-scientific communities such as the local tubewell drillers and farmers for widespread implementation of the plan.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Environmental Arsenic in a ChangingWorld - 7th International Congress and Exhibition Arsenic in the Environment, 2018 |
| Editors | Yong-Guan Zhu, Yong-Guan Zhu, Huaming Guo, Huaming Guo, Prosun Bhattacharya, Prosun Bhattacharya, Jochen Bundschuh, Arslan Ahmad, Arslan Ahmad, Arslan Ahmad, Ravi Naidu, Ravi Naidu |
| Pages | 627-628 |
| Number of pages | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2018 |
| Event | 7th International Congress and Exhibition Arsenic in the Environment, 2018 - Beijing, China Duration: Jul 1 2018 → Jul 6 2018 |
Publication series
| Name | Environmental Arsenic in a ChangingWorld - 7th International Congress and Exhibition Arsenic in the Environment, 2018 |
|---|
Conference
| Conference | 7th International Congress and Exhibition Arsenic in the Environment, 2018 |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | China |
| City | Beijing |
| Period | 7/1/18 → 7/6/18 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2018, CRC Press/Balkema. All rights reserved.
Funding
We acknowledge West Bengal Public Health Engineering Department (WBPHED) and Directorate of Public Health Engineering (DPHE), Bangladesh for providing some of the data for this study. We also acknowledge the Swedish International Development CooperationAgency (Sida) for the financial assistance (Contribution 75000854). An action research on community-based arsenic safe drinking water supply was conducted among approximately 0.2 million rural populations of 10 Unions in Narail district by EPRC in collaboration with UNICEF-Bangladesh and DPHE. The project was funded by Embassy of The Netherlands in Bangladesh. One of the main objectives of the project was to create access to safe drinking water among identified worst arsenic exposed approximately 55,000 populations. The screening was done from November’13 to January 2014. One group of the volunteers (01 male & 01 female) visited every house with a tubewell in a village and conducted the arsenic test on tubewell water sample. They painted arsenic safe (≤0.05 mg L−1 arsenic) tubewells with green color and arsenic unsafe (>0.05 mg L−1 arsenic) tubewells red based on the test results. Project officers measured GPS values of every tested tubewell and randomly checked about 5% of the results. Out of the 144 project villages in the 10 Unions approximately 75 worst arsenic affected villages were selected initially for priority water services based on arsenic screening and baseline results. Then the households, with local women, were demarked into a preliminary cluster based on all/majority households which did not meet the UNICEF suggested 150 m access to safe drinking water device. A cluster included about 20 households per arsenic DTW.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Public Health Engineering Directorate, Government of West Bengal, and Bangladesh Water Development Board, Government of Bangladesh | |
| Embassy of The Netherlands in Bangladesh | |
| Swedish International Development CooperationAgency | 75000854 |
| Public Health Engineering Department, Government of West Bengal |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis
- Toxicology
