Report from a Developing Country: Groundwater Arsenic Contamination in the Ganga-Padma-Meghna-Brahmaputra Plain of India and Bangladesh

• Published in: Archives of environmental health Vol. 58; no. 11; p. 701
• Main Authors: Sengupta, Mrinal K, Mukherjee, Amitava, Hossain, Md A, Rahman, Mohammad M, Lodh, Dilip, Chowdhury, Uttam K, Biswas, Bhajan K
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.11.2003
• ISSN: 0003-9896

In the Ganga-Meghna-Brahmaputra (GMB) plain that covers more than a half million square kilometers of India and Bangladesh and is home to more than 500 million people, arsenic levels in more than 200,000 tubewells have been determined. Elevated levels have been found in approximately 13,000 villages, and more than 48% of water samples had elevated arsenic levels. Skin lesions indicating arsenic toxicity were found in 9.89% and 19.8% of screened subjects from India and Bangladesh, respectively. Samples of urine and nails taken from residents of villages affected by elevated levels of arsenic in drinking water in India showed high levels of arsenic in 88 and 83% of samples, respectively. For hair samples from India, 62% showed toxic arsenic concentrations. In Bangladesh, hair, urine, and nails showed elevated levels in 83, 93, and 95% of samples, respectively.