Arsenic Contamination in Soil and Sediment in India: Sources, Effects, and Remediation

Abstract

Arsenic contamination is turning out to be a major problem these days with its area coverage and the number of people affected directly or indirectly. Now, the level of the contaminant has spread over the soil and sediments from groundwater and other natural sources. Arsenic poisoning in groundwater events is familiar to the world, but the consequences of soil contamination are still unrevealed to the community, specially the people of contaminated counties. Arsenic is a serious instantaneous concern for the people and other life forms regarding the poisoning through crops and vegetables. Many remediation technologies that mainly include physical, chemical, and a few biological methods have been evolved with time to check its effects. The physical and chemical methods for this purpose are often inefficient and/or very expensive, mainly limited to application in aqueous systems, and produce toxic sludge, which again becomes a matter of concern. But bioremediation relies on the fact that biological organisms have the ability to degrade, detoxify, and even accumulate harmful chemicals and offers attractive perspectives for biomonitoring (via biosensors), treatment of wastewater, and the recycling of polluted soils.