High Arsenic Groundwater Contamination Issues, Causes, and Mitigation Strategies with Successful Case Histories

ArsenicArsenic menace in groundwater has caused a grave concern not only in the Indian subcontinentIndian subcontinent but also in some of the countries of South and Southeast Asia. In Indo-Gangetic and BrahmaputraBrahmaputra alluvial plains, the alluvial aquifersAquifers at different depthDepth horizons contain arsenicArsenic more than 0.01 mg/al (the permissible limit). In Gangetic PlainsGangetic plains, the contamination is reported from 66 districts of six states, viz, West BengalWest Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, HaryanaHaryana, and Delhi, of which the intensely affected areas are from West BengalWest Bengal, Bihar, and Eastern Uttar Pradesh. In Punjab, along the Sutlej River valley, arsenicArsenic has been detected recently. In both the upper and lower BrahmaputraBrahmaputra valley such arsenicArsenic menace has been detected in AssamAssam, Manipur, and Tripura.