GIS Approach of Delineation and Risk Assessment of Areas Affected by Arsenic Pollution in Drinking Water
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 133, Issue 7
Abstract
The objective of this study is to analyze health effects of arsenic pollution of drinking water using a geographical information system (GIS). The paper reports the regional impact of arsenic contamination in six administrative blocks of the central part of the Murshidabad district, West Bengal, India. In this area about 1,248,580 people are exposed to arsenic pollution out of whom 388,316 people are exposed to arsenic concentrations above , the WHO maximum permissible level of arsenic in drinking water. The study estimates that 65% of the total area of the six blocks has arsenic concentrations below , 26.12% of the area has arsenic concentrations above , and for the rest of the area no arsenic distribution data available. The total number of expected death cases has been estimated considering the percent of risk involved in a concentration range and corresponding total population using such water for drinking purpose. The analysis forecasts that 11,890 people may risk death due to arsenic pollution in the whole life span. The maximum number of death cases is expected in Domkal and Beldanga 1 blocks and the minimum number of death cases is expected in Block Bhagabangola 2. This study also reports a comparison between the theoretical expectation of death cases and actual reported arsenicosis cases for the Domkal block. The areas of theoretical expectation and the areas of actually reported cases match fairly well except in a few cases. The present study helps planning and implementing of priority-based arsenic mitigation options.
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Acknowledgments
The writers acknowledge the support of the Murshidabad Public Health Engineering Department; Murshidabad; District Land and Land Reforms Office Murshidabad; and Census of India, Directorate of Census Operations West Bengal for offering the relevant data required for the present research work. The writers are also grateful to Mr. N. S. Nigam (IAS), District Land and Land Reforms Officer, Murshidabad, for providing block-wise toposheets in user friendly format and for many useful suggestions, and to Mr. Goutam Roychowdhury, Executive Engineer, the Murshidabad Public Health Engineering Department for giving the arsenic distribution data of the study area. The writers appreciate a critical discussion with Dr. Nagesh Kumar, Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, India. The research work reported in the paper was conducted in the Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, West Bengal, India, where the first and second writers have been research scholar and professor, respectively, until recently. The writers acknowledge the GIS facilities made available through FIST program funded by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.
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Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 133 • Issue 7 • July 2007
Pages: 742 - 749
Copyright
© 2007 ASCE.
History
Received: Jun 15, 2005
Accepted: May 25, 2006
Published online: Jul 1, 2007
Published in print: Jul 2007
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