Water quality and arsenic pollution in ground of Bangladesh

The scientists of Rajshahi University together with Hokkaido University, Research Group for Applied Geology (RGAG) and Asian Arsenic Network (AAN) of Japan suspect that groundwater of about 63 districts out of 64 districts are seriously contaminated with arsenic. There are 11 Million tube wells in Bangladesh out of which about 5 Million tube wells are highly arsenic contaminated. About 80 Million people of the affected districts are at risk and the total number of patients suffering from Arsenicosis are about 7000 and out of which about 200 persons already died in few years. It is very much essential to arrange safe water supply for the peoples. To give safe arsenic free water to the people more investigations in the whole country is essential. The source of arsenic in groundwater of Bangladesh is as yet unknown. But it is now widely believed that the high arsenic levels in the groundwater in Bangladesh have a natural geological source which may be due to abstraction water from Quaternary confined and semi-confined alluvial or deltaic aquifers. In Bangladesh Groundwater from sandy alluvial deposits are considered to be arsenic free. It is essential to consider the groundwater occurrences, its distribution and geological and hydro geological settings of the country for the mitigation of arsenic problem. To know the basic understanding of the source and mobility of arsenic it is essential to investigate the sampling depth and aquifer provenance. Present study will give some clue about the future action plan for the mitigation of the arsenic problem in Bangladesh. Variation of heart disease mortality have a general relationship with the relative hardness of drinking water. Core boring has been done for the collection of soil samples for Analysis in the laboratory.
Keywords Aquifer provenance, Arsenic contamination, Groundwater, Hydro-geological settings, Geo-chemical occurrence, Groundwater Pollution.