Arsenic contamination in groundwater in the Ganga- Brahmaputra fluvial plains in India and Padma-Meghna fluvial plains in Bangladesh and its consequences to the human health have been reported as one of the world’s biggest natural groundwater calamities to the mankind.
In India, seven states namely- West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh in the flood plain of the Ganga River; Assam and Manipur in the flood plain of the Brahamaputra and Imphal rivers and Rajnandgaon village in Chhattisgarh state have so far been reported affected by Arsenic contamination in groundwater above the permissible limit of 10 µg/L.
Government has launched National Water Quality Sub Mission on Arsenic and Fluoride to provide safe drinking water to about 28,000 affected habitations in the country by March 2021 with an outlay of Rs 25,000 crore.
While West Bengal is badly affected by the problem of arsenic, Rajasthan suffers from presence of fluoride in drinking water with serious health hazards.
There are about 17 lakh 14 thousand rural habitations in India, of which about 77 percent have been provided with safe drinking water of more than 40 liters per person per day and about 4 percent of the habitations are suffering from problems of water quality.
People in these affected states have chronically been exposed to drinking Arsenic contaminated hand tube-wells water. With every new survey, more Arsenic affected villages and people suffering from Arsenic related diseases are being reported, and the issues are getting complicated by a number of unknown factors. These fluvial plains represent Holocene aquifers of recent alluvial sediments and have the routes originated from the Himalayan region.
Arsenic groundwater contamination has farreaching consequences including its ingestion through food chain which are in the form of social disorders, health hazards and socio-economic dissolution besides its sprawling with movement, and exploitation of groundwater.
Arsenic contamination is understood to be of geogenic origin released from soil under conditions conducive to dissolution of Arsenic from solid phase on soil grains to liquid phase in water, and percolation of fertilizer residues might have played a modifying role in its further exaggeration.
Government of India is committed to providing tap water on a sustained basis in every household by 2030 as per the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for which Rs 23,000 crore of central fund will be required annually till the target is achieved.
The dream of ‘Har Ghar Jal’ cannot be realized without the involvement of the citizens. There are about 2,000 Blocks in the country with an acute shortage of surface and ground water sources and called for conservation of water on war footing through convergence of schemes like MGNREGA.
Sanitation coverage has increased from 42 percent to 62 percent since the launch of the Swachh Bharat Mission, SBM in October 2014. Apart from Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh and Kerala which are ODF (Open Defecation Free) States, 4 to 5 more States can become ODF in next six months. So far, 119 districts and 1.75 lakh villages have become ODF and the Centre has announced to incentivize the states for their timely progress.
Since the launch of the SBM, more than 3.6 Crore toilets have been constructed in the rural areas and 16.41 lakh toilets were constructed under MGNREGA.
