Status of Arsenic Contamination Along the Gangetic Plain of Ballia and Kanpur Districts, Uttar Pradesh, India and Possible Remedial Measures

Abstract

The presence of arsenic in ground water has been reported from many parts of the world, particularly in the Bengal delta of India and Bangladesh (Berg et al. Environ Sci Tech 35(13):2621–2626, 2001; Rahaman et al. Environ Geochem Health 35(1):119–132, 2013), China (Kinniburgh and Smedley, Arsenic contamination in ground water of Bangladesh. Final Report Summary, Bangladesh Department of Public Health Engineering, British Geological Society, Keyworth. http://www.bgs.ac.uk/arsenic, 2000), Vietnam (UNESCAP-UNICEF-WHO, United Nations economic and social commission for Asia and the Pacific, geology and health: solving arsenic crisis in Asia and Pacific region. UNESCAP-UNICEF-WHO expert group meeting, Bangkok, 2001) and Nepal (Tandukar et al. Proceedings of International Conference on arsenic in Asia-Pacific Region, Adelaide, 2001). In India, apart from West Bengal, arsenic contamination has been reported in other states like Ballia (Chauhan et al. Chemosphere 75(1):83–91, 2009); Ghazipur and Varanasi districts of UP (Ahamed et al. Sci Total Environ 370(2–3):310–322, 2006), middle Gangetic plain of Bihar (Chakraborti et al. Environ Health Perspect 111(9):1194–1201, 2003), Sahibgunj district of Jharkand (Bhattacharjee et al. Chemosphere 58:1203–1217, 2005), and Northeastern Karnataka (Chakraborti et al. J Hazard Mater 262:1048–1055, 2012). Till date, the data from various reports and research papers indicate that arsenic in ground water used for drinking occurs in more than 250 blocks in approximately 55 districts of India.