Abstract
This study highlights the severity of arsenic contamination in the Ganga River basin (GRB), which encompasses significant geographic portions of India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Tibet. The entire GRB experiences elevated levels of arsenic in the groundwater (up to 4730 µg/L), irrigation water (~1000 µg/L), and in food materials (up to 3947 µg/kg), all exceeding the World Health Organization’s standards for drinking water, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization’s standard for irrigation water (100 µg/L), and the Chinese Ministry of Health’s standard for food in South Asia (0.15 mg/kg), respectively. Several individuals demonstrated dermal, neurological, reproductive, cognitive, and cancerous effects; many children have been diagnosed with a range of arsenicosis symptoms, and numerous arsenic-induced deaths of youthful victims are reported in the GRB. Victims of arsenic exposure face critical social challenges in the form of social isolation and hatred by their respective communities. Reluctance to establish arsenic standards and unsustainable arsenic mitigation programs have aggravated the arsenic calamity in the GRB and put millions of lives in danger. This alarming situation resembles a ticking time bomb. We feel that after 29 years of arsenic research in the GRB, we have seen the tip of the iceberg with respect to the actual magnitude of the catastrophe; thus, a reduced arsenic standard for drinking water, testing all available drinking water sources, and sustainable and cost-effective arsenic mitigation programs that include the participation of the people are urgently needed.
Highlights
The Ganga River basin (GRB) is a part of the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) river basin, draining 1.08 million km2 in Tibet, Nepal, India, and Bangladesh; it covers nearly 26% of India’s land mass and is home to a population of over 500 million [1]
The existing safe tube wells require monitoring every six months to track the possibility of arsenic contamination as we have discovered that previously safe tube wells in
The GRB is highly vulnerable to groundwater arsenic contamination
Summary
The Ganga River basin (GRB) is a part of the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) river basin, draining 1.08 million km in Tibet, Nepal, India, and Bangladesh; it covers nearly 26% of India’s land mass and is home to a population of over 500 million [1]. Res. Public Health 2018, 15, 180 from the east to the Ganga plain and began using Ganga water to supplement their daily needs; at that time, the Ganga was considered a holy river [2]. Devout Hindus still believe that the Ganga’s water will never be polluted and that this holy river is the root of spiritual purification. An endogamous kinship group is the self-perceived “caste” of the individual Hindu, or has been at least until relatively recent times) or tribe would have had difficulty accepting that water from the Ganga River could be polluted and unsuitable for drinking. Over the last 75 years, the Ganga has become so polluted that even a devout Hindu may not believe that Ganga water is safe to drink [3]. Several questions have arisen regarding why and how this state of affairs has come to pass
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