Mitigation and Remedy of Groundwater Arsenic Menace in India

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Mitigation and Remedy of Groundwater Arsenic Menace in India : A Vision DocumentChapter - 7Work Ahead: Critical Concerns and Key Challenges7.1 Unfinished AgendaArsenic was first detected in India in the early 80s, in a village in West Bengal, wheresome of the villagers developed symptoms of Arsenicosis and skin pigmentations. At that time,the cause for sickness and symptoms were not known to the medical professionals. Neither thePublic Health Engineers nor the community water supply sector professionals were aware ofthe danger posed by such a serious chemical contaminant as Arsenic. There was absence ofeven the rudimentary facilities of water quality monitoring and surveillance in the rural areas ofthe country at that time. The people continued drinking arsenic contaminated water for years,got sick and hospitalized and then only the cause and source of water contamination wasidentified. Since then, during the last three decades, substantial amount of work has been done toenrich our knowledge in respect of the following.(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)The source and cause of Arsenic contamination of ground water.Extent and magnitude of the same.Mechanism of dissolution of Arsenic from soil to ground water.Impact on Community Health: Diagnosis of sickness and symptoms.Development of technologies for removal of arsenic from ground water.Analytical techniques for detecting arsenic from ground water.It is needless to say that a comprehensive understanding of the above aspects would goa long way in developing immediate, interim and long term strategy, to address the problem. Thefirst decade, that is, the 80s, when the arsenic problem was first detected, was conspicuous byslow response of the administration in identifying the problem and assessing the extent andmagnitude of the same. The R&D studies, water quality monitoring and epidemiological assessment,were all too inadequate to measure up the situation. Till date, except the state of WestBengal, no other states in India, and a very few countries, have developed a comprehensive planof action to deal with the situation. Even in West Bengal, where a master plan for an ambitiousprogramme of supplying arsenic-free water to all the affected villages through a system of pipedwater supply after appropriate treatment is in place, implementation of the same is taking inordinatelylong time. As a result, a large portion of the affected population continues to be at risk.The basic agenda is of ensuring a sustainable and affordable supply of arsenic free water to allsegments of community, in the geographical areas, where concentration of arsenic in groundwater is high and above permissible limit. This agenda still remains largely unfinished in most ofthe countries. In the next few paragraphs in this chapter, we will discuss the current knowledgegaps, critical concerns and key challenges, facing the country and also the factors which areimpeding the progress of mitigatory programmes.NIH & CGWB 125
Work Ahead: Critical Concerns and Key Challenges7.2 Critical ConcernsThe National Governments in many of the Asian countries, affected by high Arsenic ingroundwater, are trying to meet the challenges with varying degrees of success. The primarytask of providing Arsenic safe water to millions of people needs to address the following criticalconcerns.• Water quality monitoring* District & Block level Capacity Building.• Identification of Arsenic contaminated as well as safe sources: both public & private• Provision of alternate sources of Arsenic free safe drinking water.• Village specific GIS Database and Action Plan and sharing the same with allstakeholders.• Establishing a transparent system of information sharing by all stakeholders* Health Education.* Awareness Generation.• Health Risk Assessment and estimation of disease burden :• Provision of Medical Relief for the critically affected people :* Training of Medical Practioners in Govt, as well as outside the same.• Long-term change in agriculture and Irrigation practice:* Restricting the use of Groundwater.7.2.1 National Standard for Arsenic in Drinking WaterIn addressing the key-concerns and developing a National Plan of Action, for providingArsenic safe water to the community, the 1st key-step is to establish a National Standard forArsenic in Drinking Water.The WHO is helping the countries in developing their own national standards. The presentguideline value of Arsenic in groundwater of WHO is 10ppb, but as could be seen below in thetable, many countries are still adhering to the standard of 50 ppb of Arsenic.Country standard for Arsenic in Ground waterCountries Standard Mg/L Countries StandardsMg/LAustralia 0.007 Bolivia (1997) 0.05European Union (1998) 0.01 China 0.05Japan (1993) 0.01 Egypt (1995) 0.05126NIH & CGWB
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTThe Government of In
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nearly 33 villages in 4 districts i
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(iii) Whether ex-situ removal techn
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6.4 Experiences during Arsenic Remo
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List of FiguresFigure no. Figure ca
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List of TablesTable no. Table Capti
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Mitigation and Remedy of Groundwater Arsenic Menace in India

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