Mitigation of Arsenic Risk from Groundwater in West Bengal, India

Mitigate the risk to humans from arsenic in the drinking water of West Bengal, India. In this region, arsenic is a natural contaminant present at toxic concentrations in otherwise potable groundwater.

Objectives

• Through scientific investigations:
  • Identify safe and unsafe zones based on environmental factors;
  • Using numerical groundwater flow models, investigate flow patterns to identify arsenic source areas and to assess the long-term sustainability of groundwater resources in zones that are currently safe;
  • Design potential mitigation approaches developed during this project.
• Through the development of local partnerships:
  • Enhance the awareness of Canadian hydro geological expertise, products and services;
  • Develop demonstration projects to promote the incorporation of Canadian expertise, products and services into the implementation of mitigation strategies.
• Long term:
  • Combine scientific findings from this project and Canadian private sector expertise to implement effective mitigation measures.

Partners

Earth Sciences Sector (ESS), Natural Resources Canada (NRCan)
Geological Survey of India (GSI)
University of British Columbia (UBC)

Duration

From 2003 to 2009

Background

First identified in West Bengal, this problem is now recognized throughout southern Asia and is believed to pose a risk to the health of up to 100 million people globally. Since arsenic is colourless, odourless and may be present at low, yet dangerous concentrations, it is difficult to detect in drinking water.

Minimizing the health impact of Arsenic toxicity is vital because as than five million people in West Bengal State are at risk. Conservative figures suggest that there are over 300,000 people suffering various stages of arsenic poisoning. Arsenic-related illnesses have a long latency time and symptoms can remain dormant for 10 years or longer.

India and Canada reached a memorandum of understanding in 2003 to cooperate in the field of geoscience. As a part of this memorandum, the countries agreed to investigate the problem of arsenic in the groundwater of West Bengal. The on-going research activities include completing the analysis, data interpretation and the preparation of scientific publications.

The geological context in West Bengal is very frequent in Southern Asia, which makes this a widespread problem in the region. Regions of Bangladesh, Cambodia and Vietnam also suffer from this problem.

For additional information you can explore the following links:

Abstracts from an international conference on arsenic in Bangladesh ground water

Public Health Engineering, Government of West Bengal

Contact

• Scientific: Dr. Alexandre Desbarats
• Administrative: James Ikkers