Professional Documents
Culture Documents
(2007)
Abstract
High concentrations of naturally occurring arsenic are found in the groundwater of Bangladesh. A
wide range of technologies have been created to remove arsenic from drinking water. The SONO
filtration system is a household level technology, and through coagulation, filtration and precipitation
processes the arsenic is transformed from its potentially deadly soluble form into an insoluble solid
that is exposed of as waste. The system is highly effective in its removal of arsenic and currently
provides safe drinking water to millions. Such an achievement provides a small step in the direction
of achieving the Millennium Development Goal of providing clean safe drinking water to a larger
majority of the population. The system provides an affordable short term solution
Keywords: Bangladesh, arsenic removal, household level, Filtration, Composite Iron Matrix,
contamination, groundwater
Introduction
Water, ‘blue gold’ is finite, all the water that will ever be is, right now (National
Geographic, 1993). The freshwater that we as the human race depend on amounts to
0.01% of all water on earth, illustarted below in figure 1 (Miller, 2005). With global
trends set to see a human population of nine billion in 2050 the importance of water
security is imminent (Crop Life International , 2004). The United Nations has
addressed this threat in their Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) under goal
seven, a difficult task in which they have stated “it will require extraordinary efforts”
to achieve (United Nations, 2008).
Figure 1: The distribution of the World's water resources with emphasis on the distribution of
fresh water.
Source from (Lannoe, 2007)
A pressing issue of the global water crisis is concerned with water quality as it is the
quality of water that determines its purpose (Department of the Environment: Water
Heritage and the Arts, 2008). Many pollutants of both human and natural origin
contaminate water undermining its quality (Miller, 2005). The effect on humans
specifically can be devastating. The United Nations states that contaminated
drinking water and poor sanitation kill 1.5 million children a year (United Nations,
2008). The contamination of water supplies via anthropogenic processes is generally
easy to rectify once the cause has been identified. Identifying contamination via
natural processes on the other hand is much more difficult (Miller, 2005).
One such problem is the contamination of water with arsenic. The effects on its
consumers are horrific; acute poisoning results in diarrhea, vomiting, convulsions
and blood in urine which may later be followed by coma or death. Chronic
poisoning causes skin lesion, abnormal growth, and cancers. There is a great deal of
concern about the later form of poisoning as it may take up to ten years before any
symptoms are revealed (A. H Welch et al, 2003).
This was the case for millions of people in Bangladesh. For years the people of
Bangladesh had suffered epidemics of cholera, typhoid and dysentery as a result of
drinking from pools and streams that where contaminated with harmful microbial
pathogens (Baxter, 1998)
During the 1970s UNICEF and the Government of Bangladesh encouraged its
people to drink water from tube wells (Anwar, 2007). These tube wells accessed the
abundant reservoirs of groundwater below their feet and promised high quality
water. Regrettably the water contained the deadly poison arsenic (A. H Welch et al,
2003). By 1993 when the first symptoms of arsenic poisoning began to appear there
were millions of tube wells throughout Bangladesh supplying water to around 90%
of its population (BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Water scarcity: A looming crisis?,
2004).
The British Geological Survey was asked to test a proportion of these wells for
arsenic contamination. The results indicated that approximately fifty percent of the
tube wells tested were over the World Health Organization standard of ten parts per
billion. In many cases the concentrations were greater than 200ppb (British
Geological Survey). In addition hazardous concentrations of arsenic have been
detected in forty seven of sixty four districts (SOES/DCH, 1998). The Government,
UNICEF and others had to counteract their initial approach and encourage people
not to drink from contaminated groundwater (Baxter, 1998).
Millions of people are at risk from arsenic poisoning and the majority of those
concerned are completely unaware of the daily hazard they face. Arsenic itself is
colourless, odourless, and tasteless even in high concentrations requiring special
chemical tests to detect its presence in drinking water (Lepkowski, 1999). Added to
these problems are the socio-economic background of Bangladesh and the
overwhelming dependence of its people on groundwater (DPHE/Danida, 1999).
In view of the above factors there is an urgent need for a suitable treatment system
for the removal of arsenic from groundwater. Socio-economic conditions of
Bangladesh demand low-cost, easy to use, convenient, small treatment units that can
be implemented in households and communities (Saha, 2001).
A variety of technologies have been used for the removal of Arsenic from
groundwater, including:
1. Co-precipitation with ferric chloride
2. Absorptive filtration and exchange resins
3. Ion exchange
High iron concentrations may decrease the effectiveness of the above technologies.
As ferrous iron will be oxidized and form a ferric hydroxide coating upon surfaces,
or in the case of number four above block the pores of membranes (Hering J. G,
1996) (McNiel, 1997) (Sorg, 1978). The ‘Bucket Treatment Unit’ (BTU) developed
by DPHE-Danida will be the focus of this literature based research report (Owen,
2001).
Aim
The aim of this study is to evaluate the removal of naturally occurring arsenic from
groundwater in Bangladesh via a household filtration system which is based upon a
composite iron matrix.
_____________________________________________________________
Objectives
Answering this question necessitated breaking the task down into three information
seeking objectives as follows:
1) What is the Bucket Treatment Unit and how does it operate?
2) Determine the arsenic removal capacity of the SONO filter
3) Determine the social aspects of the SONO filter:
• The management of spent material
• The manufacturing and distribution
• The social acceptability
Methods
Each objective requires the same procedure of obtaining information when searching
databases. Thus the methods of searching literature for information on each
objective will be the same.
........................................................................................................................................
a) Search Databases
• Search engines Google, Yahoo, AltaVista, and Ask.com (useful for
acquiring basic information surrounding the objective)
• Google Scholar peer reviewed papers, thesis, books and abstracts
from professional societies (useful for more reliable sources of
information)
• Subject Gateways BUBL, Intute: Science, Education and
Technology, Intute: Health and Life (academically reliable
information.)
• Books Worldcat (access to electronic books)
• Databases science research.com, web of knowledge / web of
science, water resources abstracts
• Journals Directory of Open Access Journals
• News Sources: EureaAlert, New Scientist, BBCi: Science and
Nature (keep up-to-date on subject.
Before searching will ensure that the correct source has been chosen. To do so i will
simply ask; does it have full text? Does it cover the right subject matter? Does it
contain peer reviewed information?
The next step in gathering information for each objective will involve being prompt.
P-presentation: How is the information communicated? If pages are not clearly
communicated then no more time will wasted upon them
R-Relevance: information may not be relevant to my search due to; the
geographical aspects, level (too basic or too specialized), emphasis.
O-Objectivity: good information should be devoid of bias and be well balanced
presenting information on both sides of an argument
M-Method: the way information is produced; an opinion, research, reviews of
research.
P-Provenance: who produced it where did it come from provides useful clues its
reliability; authors, organisations.
T-Timeless: The date of production/publish important indicator of reliability. Thus
any information that does not have a date will not be considered for this report.
..................................................................................................................................................
b) Key Words
........................................................................................................................................
C) Search Limits
...............................................................................................................................................
Objective 2: The scarcity of the quantity of peer reviewed literature, although the
few papers providing the in depth information needed where of high quality.
Therefore all relevant information was thoroughly studied.
Objective 3: Those who are educated are voices for their country and people, and
are informers of the crisis in which they face daily. Other peer reviewed literature
where compiled of author from less bias nations.
E) Key Content
Objective 1: Structure and operation of the SONO filter system
Objective 2: Effectiveness of SONO filter system in reducing arsenic concentrations
Objective 3: Manufacture, distribution, management and social acceptability of
SONO filter
F) Focus
Objective 1: Basic illustrations and descriptions of how the SONO filter operates
Objective 2: Graphs and Tables from key sources illustrating how effective the
SONO filter is at removing arsenic from ground water.
Objective 3: Qualitative descriptions and illustrations of the social factors
surrounding the SONO filter
Results
Objective 1: What is the Bucket Treatment Unit and how does it operate?
The BTU is a two-stage, pour-collect filtration system and was developed with
Bangladeshi villagers in mind. The BTU consists of two 40-litre plastic buckets and
illustrated below in figure 2. The top bucket is red in colour and contains the
composite-iron matrix (CIM) in between two layers of sand. The bottom bucket is
green in colour and has a simple sand and charcoal filter that cleans the water of iron
and other impurities that may have drained from the first bucket (Figure 2) (A.
Hussam, 2001) (Rasul, 2002).
To produce clean drinking water groundwater is collected from a local well and
poured into the upper red bucket which contains 32 kg of material. The water filters
down through 10 kg of course river sand which are obtained from local river
sediments and thoroughly washed before use. The course sand layer contains 95%
SiO2 and acts as a filter oxidising soluble iron.
The product of iron oxidation is the precipitate Fe(OH)3 (s) which is effectively
trapped in the sand (A. Hussam, 2001). The course sand layer also provides
mechanical stability by stabilising the flow of water. In addition this layer reduces
the production of fine particles. This results in a low probability of the pores spaces
between the sand grains clogging up, and a higher probability of the sand layer
lasting for longer without compromising the quality of water (Mortoza, 2008).
The water then passes through 5-10 kg of the composite iron matrix (CIM) which
contains 92-94% Fe. The CIM is manufactured iron turnings obtaining from local
industries. The turnings are washed and treated to enhance HFO formation. The CIM
is the surface upon which ions of elements such as arsenic are captured and
immobilized.
Iron hydroxide has a remarkable capacity to capture ions of other elements. This is
because of its molecular structure illustrated below in figure 3 which is full of gaps.
Figure 3: The molecular structure of iron (III) hydroxide, (the ball within the shaded green
area is iron; blue = oxygen; white = hydrogen) note the openess of the structure.
Source (Clark, 2003)
Effectively, hydrogen atoms are remote enough from iron and oxygen in the
structure for them to produce localised positive charges at the surface of the mineral.
Consequently negatively charged anions can attach to the surfaces of the iron
hydroxide by adsoption. Iron (III) hydroxide therefore acts like a ‘chemical mop’
(Pierce, 1982).
The water then flows through a second layer of course sand (10kg) before being
manually taped and piped through plastic tubing to the second green bucket (Wilkie,
1996) (A. Hussam, 2001).
The water is filtered through a third layer of course sand (10 kg) which retains any
iron leached from the first bucket. The following layer contains wood charcoal that
is obtained from the firewood used for cooking.
The charcoal absorbs any organic matter, and although passive to As this layer
provides better tasting water. The water then flows through 9kg of fine sand derived
from rivers and acts as a fine filtration system designed to catch ant residual particle.
Finally the water passes through 3.5 kg of brick chips, obtained from local
manufactures. The brick chips stabilise water flow before being manually tapped
into any container below (A. Hussam, 2001) (Yuan, 2006) (Raven, 1998).
The structure itself consists of two 40 litre buckets made of food-grade high density
polypropylene buckets. These buckets are produced by local plastic modelling
industries and are fitted with a top cover to reduce further contamination and are
moulded with outlets for the flow control taps. The flow controllers are made of
either moulded plastics or metal taps and control the flow of water through the
system. Lastly a metallic filter stand made by local welders provides support for the
buckets and completes the Bucket Treatment Unit (A. Hussam, 2001).
The BTU was tested with contaminated groundwater by Hussan and Munir from six
different tube wells in six different households; Fatic, Caurtpara, Zia, Alampur,
Kaliskhnpur and Juniadah (A. Hussam, 2001). The CIM removed the inorganic
arsenic through a series of possible reactions which are visible in appendix D for
reference.
The results indicate that arsenic concentrations ranging from 32-2423 ug/L where
entered in to the filtration system. The potable water that had been filtrated on the
other hand only contained between <2 ug/L (which is the detection limit) to 8+/-4
ug/L of arsenic. Table one below illustrates the results obtained from BTU in the six
districts.
Table 1: results from six BTU filter monitored for approximately 2-5 years in active use by
householders in the Kushtia District Bangladesh
Extracted from (A. Hussam, 2001)
Therefore the optimum arrangement of the sand, CIM, and charcoal layers removes
the arsenic ions effectively. The BTU is also unique in its ability to decrease arsenic
concentration with increasing water yield as illustrated below in figure 4 (Adeel,
2001).
Figure 4: BTU filter performance at filter 5 (table 1) illustrating the decrease in waste arsenic
against water yield
Source (A. Hussam, 2001)
Hassun et al attribute this quality to the generation of new complexation sites on the
CIM through insitu iron oxidation (rust) (A. Hussam, 2001) (Orville, 1977).
The BTU was extensively for the effective filtration of arsenic by Hussan et al,
USEPA, WHO, and the Government of Bangladesh the results of which are
illustrated in table 2 below.
Table 2: Comparisons of arsenic concentration in groundwater after filtration from a BTU (or
otherwise known as SONO filter) USEPA, WHO, and the Bangladesh Government.
Extracted from (A. Hussam, 2001)
Of the 590,000 L of groundwater that where filtered through the BTU at the six
locations identified in table one, the filtered water met the institutions
recommendations for the amount of arsenic present in drinking water (Adeel, 2001).
The BTU effectiveness at removing arsenic from groundwater decreases by 20-30%
per year due to the clogging of pore spaces in sand layers. In such an event the flow
rate of water through the BTU decreases indicating that the upper sand layers need
to be replaced (A. Hussam, 2001).
Spent materials are contaminated with high concentrations of toxics (Noyes, 1993).
Thus the process and complexity of waste disposal affect their technical viability,
cost, and social acceptability (Prosun Bhattacharya, 2007). At present, the only way
to identify toxic waste is to leach the solid material under ‘laboratory’ conditions, to
determine if the levels of toxic species released into the environment exceed
regulatory limits (Timbrell, 2002).
In this case the spent material was apparently nontoxic with less than 5 ug/L of
arsenic in all forms (NEA, 2007). The arsenic ions that have collected in the used
sand and CIM are in their oxidized form and are firmly bound with solid CIM,
producing an insoluble product. The disposal of which has been is therefore safe
according to Hassan et al.
The wastes produced are disposed of on land. The Environmental Protection Agency
has a recommendation of 2 kg of disposed arsenic per hectare of land. NEA
(National Academy of Engineering) and Hussan et al have corresponded this to
mean that 10 million liters of water with a concentration of 200mg/L of arsenic can
be disposed of over a hectare of land (Khan, 2000). From such results the evidence
indicates the safe disposal and easy disposal of arsenic contaminated water collected
form the SONO filter.
The large-scale manufacture and distribution of the apparatus was primarily funded
through local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), local governments, and
international institutions (e.g., UNICEF).
The filter itself is manufactured by an NGO which uses indigenous materials for its
construction, although the CIM requires an appropriate licensing agreement. They
have been disturbed on a large scale via transportation of the units using flat bed
trucks and filter distributers in villages, which use flat bed rickshaws (Jakariya,
2007).
Once the filter system has been delivered the set up of the filtration system requires
consumers to follower simple guidelines, in doing so the set up of the system can be
completed within 20 minutes with potable water available within 3hrs. In some
cases the filter system has been scaled up by connecting adjacent units. This practice
has enhanced the flow rate for small communities (Abul Hussam, 2008). The filters
are now present in many social institution; primary and secondary schools, homes,
villages, restaurants and cafes. Estimates sate that around half a million people all
over Bangladesh are benefiting from the SONO filtration system (A. Hussam, 2001).
Social Acceptability
At a cost of $35 to $40 for five years, the equivalent of the one-month income of a
village laborer in Bangladesh, SONO is one of the most affordable water filters
available on the market. Monthly payment schedules available through the NGOs
that distribute the filters can make them even more affordable (Abul Hussam, 2008).
Unlike other technologies available the SONO filters do not require additional
chemicals or consumables. The estimated operating cost therefore is no more than
$10 over a five year period. In addition this cost is only in the event of the flow
controller being replaced, which has been stated to be a rare (Abul Hussam, 2008).
One unit can meet the needs of two families for drinking and cooking water for at
least five years. Provided that the instructions provided are followed the filter
system will be self mostly self maintained providing clean, soft water (A. Hussam,
2001).
Studies have shown that water collection and maintenance of the SONO filter are
done mostly by women, who enjoy the system as they do not have to walk long
distances to and from arsenic-free well (Bagla, 2003). Many people who had drunk
from the filtered water for two years or more showed some improvement in
arsenical reported a general sense of well-being and improvement in health (Hering
J. G, 1996).
The filter has a flow rate of 20 liters per hour, which produces enough water for
drinking, cooking, and other purposes. Hussan et al during their studies found no
social or cultural stigma associated with the dissemination or use of the filter
“except the reluctance to share filter water with neighbors” (A. Hussam, 2001).
Unfortunately there is still a large number of people who are unaware of their daily
consumption of arsenic and thus many NGOs have implemented training and
cultural programs to encourage and motivate people to drink arsenic free water
(Khan, 2000).
Concerns expressed in the search limits regarding the validity of the peer reviewed
literature researched where highlighted. Unease regarding the legitimacy of the
experiments conducted with the SONO filter and its waste disposal where strongly
expressed. Many believed a different filtering process was used to gain recognition
and verification from such organisations as WHO. Others were interested in the
unmonitored disposal of waste upon the land and feared the consequences of such
activities on the environment and their future health (Husain, 2007).
In 2000 world leaders from across the globe put their differences aside and came
together at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. During this conference
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were born (WHO, 2008). In total there
are eight goals.
The management of water quality impinges directly or indirectly on all eight of the
MDGs (WHO, 2008). The United Nations filed the water quality problem into Goal
7 labelled under Target 10; “Half by 2015 the proportion of people without
sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation”. (United Nations,
2008)
The target is for people to have improved access to safe drinkable water by 2015. By
safe drinkable water they refer to the percentile of the population with access to at
least 20 litres of water a person per day from an improved source within one
kilometre of a person’s dwelling (The World Bank, 2008).
The two spheres of a problem compiled in target 10 are one of the same. By
improving basic sanitation the quality of water in that area will also be improved and
vice versa to have adequate sanitation facilities safe water is needed.
The achievement of such a goal would be a miracle, and the United Nations
addresses how difficult a task this really is; ‘with half the world without basic
sanitation, meeting the MDG target will require extraordinary efforts’ (United
Nations, 2008).
Since the establishment of the target Bangladesh does not seem to have benefited.
Table 9.1 and 9.2 below where been constructed from information sourced by the
UN in working towards the achievement of Goal 7 Target 10.
The system itself consists of two 40 L buckets through which water is filtered. The
water passes through a sequence of course and fine sands, wood charcoal, brick
chips and the CIM. Through the combination of coagulation, filtration and
precipitation processes the arsenic in the groundwater is converted from its soluble
potential deadly state to a safe insoluble solid.
The effectiveness of which was illustrated by the results obtained by Abdul Hussan,
2001.The filter was proved to be highly successful by reducing the arsenic
concentration to well below the detectable limit of 2ug/L in some cases.
This therefore provides a useful mechanism which can reduce the concentration of
arsenic in groundwater providing safe drinking water to its consumers. The
proportion of the population using the filtering system therefore have access to clean
safe drinking water contributing a small step toward achieving the Millennium
Development Goal 7.
In addition to the effectiveness of the system in producing high quality water that is
within the recommendations made by the WHO, the social aspects of the filtering
system needed to be addressed.
The concept of arsenic poisoning is reacted to differently all over Bangladesh due to
the majority of citizen being ill informed of the nature of the problem.
Many people view skin lesions, a product of chronic arsenic poisoning, as being
contagious. Those exhibiting the defects become socially excluded.
Furthermore new technology may be looked upon with caution as many people ran
from the villages crying ‘devils water is coming’ when the first tube wells where
sunk, and many consider that had they listened to their instincts then there
communities may have been saved from chronic arsenic poisoning.
Granted some citizens in various literatures have expressed their concerns regarding
the filtration system and its operation, although most after continued use of the clean
drinking water have expressed feelings of physical and mental well-being.
The SONO filter system has been welcomed by the majority of the nation and has
been incorporated into; schools cafes and restaurants. The easy construction,
maintenance and disposal of the waste material makes the units user friendly, and by
adjoin units parallel, can provide small communities with safe drinking water.
Although a short term solution this technology provides good quality drinking water
for many and is the basis for many other NGO incentives and initiatives the most
pressing of which are highlighted in the diagram below.
Recommendations
1. The SONO filtration system should be stronger structurally and the quality
of the buckets improved to prevent damage.
2. Re assessment of the time in which the water is required to be in contact with
the CIM (which is currently 3hrs) should be a continuous processes as the
filter system ages.
3. The Filtration system should be promoted in those areas that are suffering
from the worst arsenic poisoning
4. Alternative water treatment systems should be region specific depending on
the geography of arsenic contamination in specific areas. Therefore area
specific water characteristics should be known and researched.
5. All personnel who which to operate the filtration system should be trained in
basic hygiene.
The above recommendations are toward a short term solution. A United effort
should be enforced whereby research is conducted in the aim to address the core
of the problem; to understand the genesis of arsenic contamination in the
groundwater of Bangladesh. Only when the source and origin of the problem has
been completely addressed and researched can a long term solution be produced.
References
Kanel, S. H. (2006). Removal of As (III) from groundwater using low cost industrial
by-products-blast furnace slag. Water Quality Research Journal of Canada , 130–
139.
Khan, A. S. (2000). Appraisal of a simple arsenic removal method for groundwater
of Bangladesh. Journal of Environmental Science and Health , 1021–1041.
Lee R. Kump, James F. Kasting, Robert G. Crane. (2004). The Earth System (2nd
ed.). United States of America: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Lepkowski, W. (1999). Arsenic Crisis Spurs Scientists. CEN.
Mathematica. (1999). Abundance in the Earths Crust for all the Elements in the
Periodic Table. Retrieved July 27, 2008, from Abundance in Earth's Crust of the
elements: http://periodictable.com/Properties/A/CrustAbundance.html
Meharg, A. A. (2005). Venomous Earth: How Arsenic Caused the World's Worst
Mass Poisoning. Macmillan.
Meyer, W. B. (1996). Human impact on the earth. Cambridge University Press.
Miller, G. T. (2005). Environmental Science. (11th, Ed.) Thomson Brooks/Cole.
Mortoza, S. (2008, July 27). arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh/India. Retrieved June
12, 2008, from The Curse of Pollution : http://www.sos-
arsenic.net/english/article/index.html#17
NEA. (2007). Grainger Challenge Prize Winners 2007. Retrieved Oct 12, 2008,
from SONO filter: http://www.nae.edu/nae/grainger.nsf/weblinks/MKEZ-
6XYRHR?OpenDocument
Noyes, R. (1993). Pollution Prevention Technology Handbook. William Andrew Inc.
Orville, A. L. (1977). Arsenic: Medical and Biological Effects of Environmenatl
Pollutants. National Acedemics.
Owen, J. (2001). The Water Page - Arsenic Feature. Retrieved Aug 02, 2008, from
Arsenic in Drinknig Water: http://www.africanwater.org/arsenic.htm
Pearce, F. (2003, Aug 06). Arsenic's fatal legacy grows worldwide - 06 August 2003
- New Scientist. Retrieved July 15, 2008, from Arsenic's Fatal Legacy Grows
Worldwide: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4024
Pierce, M. a. (1982). Adsorption of arsenite and arsenate on amorphous iron
hydroxide. Water Research , 1247–1253.
Prosun Bhattacharya, A. B. (2007). Arsenic in Soil and Groundwater Environment.
Elsevier.
Rasul, S. Z. (2002). Electrochemical measurement and speciation of inorganic
arsenic in groundwater of Bangladesh. The International Journal of Pure and
Applied Analytical Chemistry , 33–43.
Raven, K. A. (1998). Arsenite and arsenate adsorption on ferrihydrite: kinetics,
equilibrium, and adsorption envelopes. Environmental Science and Technology ,
344–349.
Although the initial proposal meet several of the necessary requirements some key
changes were made. Outlined below are the recommendations from the marker
followed by the changes made in response.
1. The finally report was required to be much shorter than the Preliminary
Analysis submitted.
• Much of the information in the proposal was provided for the lay
reader, this majority of this material has been cut from the finally
report, with additional information being provided in the appendix for
those readers who wish for a little more reading.
2. The aim of the proposal was much too ambiguous for the requirements of the
assignment.
• My approach to the proposal has been modified to assess what
options are available to Bangladesh in terms of mitigating the
problem.
The aim of the issues was revised from i) to ii):
i) An investigation into the genesis of arsenic that contaminates
the groundwater of Bangladesh. The study will take an Earths
Systems Approach and thus be focused into four separate
compartments; atmospheric, hydrological biological,
lithological. The compartments will not remain closed as with
further study the interconnections between them will become
apparent
ii) The aim of this study is to evaluate the removal of naturally
occurring arsenic from groundwater in Bangladesh via a
household filtration system which is based upon a composite
iron matrix
3. The final report needed to produce a; very tight, very focused and very-in-
depth analysis of one aspect of the issue covered in the proposal.
• To make this key change the aim of my report focused on one method
of mitigating the problem of arsenic contamination in the
groundwater of Bangladesh
_____________________________________________
Appendix C
Plot of abundances of elements in the Earth’s crust on a sorted scatter with a log scale. The y-
axis is the percentage of the elements in the Earth’s crust relative to the abundance of silicon
(set arbitrarily at 10^6/1million).
Source (Mathematica, 1999)
Arsenic has all of the attributes of an element which first came into contact with
organisms after the Earth’s surface become dominant with oxidising conditions. Due
to its low crustal abundance throughout Earth’s history arsenic has rarely come into
contact with organic matter, thus its prime candidate for having retained its deadly
poisonous effects is ‘by virtue of its rarity’ (International Labour office, 1930).
From the map it is clear that the fifty million people at risk from arsenic poisoning in
Bangladesh is the largest in the world.
_____________________________________________
Appendix D
Nearly all of the 133 910 square kilometres (sq km) of land remains below one
hundred meters, a great deal of it never reaching a few meters above sea level. As
illustrated on figure 5.1.1, most of the country is situated on the interlocking deltas
of the two great rivers; the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, that flow from the
Himalaya and the major tributary called the Meghan. All discharge into the Bay of
Bengal. The Ganges connects with the Brahmaputra, and then joins the Meghan,
which drains part of Northeast India, giving the total area of both land and sea to be
144 000 sq km (Central Intelligence Agency, 2008).
Almost 10% of Bangladesh seems to be covered by river channels and much of the
country is cyclically inundated with flood waters during the monsoon season
(Baxter, 1998). The climatic extremes experienced by the country due to its global
location (figure 5.1.1) causes high river flow, sea-level surges and catastrophic
floods. After the floods have calmed deposits of fertile silt are left behind. The
agricultural exploitation of the fertile silt supports the eighth largest population of
the world (Baxter, 1998).
into the abundant reservoirs of underground water. The simplicity and affordability
of technology led villages to dig their own private wells. Within three decades
millions of tube wells throughout Bangladesh where dug (Bagla, 2003).
The villages may have been right! In 1993 doctors began to notice a growing
number of skin lesions known to be a symptom of arsenic contamination due to
recent studies undertaken in neighbouring West Bengal India. With more than 2-5
million tube wells supplying 95% of the population with ‘safe’ drinking water the
extent of the possible epidemic at hand was horrifying. The groundwater turned out
to be far from safe, contaminated with something colourless, odourless and tasteless,
naturally occurring arsenic (Owen, 2001).
Scientists have investigated many theories and are still debating the exact
mechanism by which arsenic safely locked up in rocks become freed into the water
supply (Anwar, 2007).
Thus it remains a mystery as to how water from the world’s highest mountain range
that has been filtered over hundreds of kilometres of sand and silt, and has not seen
the light of day for hundreds of years can poison an area the size of New Zealand.
Without an understanding of the exact causes of the problem no solution can provide
a long term solution.