Arsenic contamination: a case study from five districts of Assam, India.

The presence of Arsenic in the groundwater of Assam has come to the preview with other parts of India. It shares the same hydro-geological condition with its neighboring state West Bengal and neighboring country Bangladesh where the groundwater arsenic concentration has been reported as far beyond that of the safe limit. Thus the present study was carried out to determine the groundwater arsenic concentration level in five districts of Assam viz., Sonitpur, Nagaon, Kamrup, Nalbari and Darrang using continuous- HG- AAS technique. It was found that the groundwater of all the districts has arsenic concentration above the WHO Permissible limit 10 ppb (though BIS limit is 50 ppb) and in some place it is approaching 50 ppb, which may create problem of arsenicosis in near future.