PVC pipe joints during installation also in Bangladesh, which is part of a drilling technique of Indian hand percussion. Photo: Rajib Mozumder
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory graduate student Rajib Mozumder, scientists working with Lex van Geen Lamont and Ben Bostick, has spent part of their water wells summer drilling and sampling in Bangladesh.
Rajib writes: "On this trip we drilled to assess the vulnerability of an intermediate depth (about 30 to 80 meters deep) aquifer Araihazar, Bangladesh Overall, groundwater pumped from the middle Pleistocene (12,000 years ago) of sand. Orange is low in arsenic, while shallow, or less than 30 meters deep gray Holocene (less than 5,000 years ago) sediments derived water is highly contaminated by arsenic.
We have recently sediment orange, which is certain observed, which means that it contains less than 10 parts per billion (ppb) of arsenic, it may become gray. In general, a low arsenic aquifer can be converted into a high arsenic aquifer over time in a dynamic hydrogeological system, which can be disturbed by large-scale pumping city.
This research is important because millions of people around the world, especially in South and Southeast Asia who are drinking arsenic-contaminated water need a strategy for sustainable mitigation. If intermediate depth aquifers are not sustainable, then rural Bangladeshis have to install deep wells, which is neither cost effective nor easy to achieve with the art of hand drill percussion local drillers. "
His research is in collaboration with the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, and is funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The results of a similar study in Vietnam, co-written by Bostick, van Geen, were published last year in the journal Nature.
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory graduate student Rajib Mozumder, scientists working with Lex van Geen Lamont and Ben Bostick, has spent part of their water wells summer drilling and sampling in Bangladesh.
Rajib writes: "On this trip we drilled to assess the vulnerability of an intermediate depth (about 30 to 80 meters deep) aquifer Araihazar, Bangladesh Overall, groundwater pumped from the middle Pleistocene (12,000 years ago) of sand. Orange is low in arsenic, while shallow, or less than 30 meters deep gray Holocene (less than 5,000 years ago) sediments derived water is highly contaminated by arsenic.
We have recently sediment orange, which is certain observed, which means that it contains less than 10 parts per billion (ppb) of arsenic, it may become gray. In general, a low arsenic aquifer can be converted into a high arsenic aquifer over time in a dynamic hydrogeological system, which can be disturbed by large-scale pumping city.
This research is important because millions of people around the world, especially in South and Southeast Asia who are drinking arsenic-contaminated water need a strategy for sustainable mitigation. If intermediate depth aquifers are not sustainable, then rural Bangladeshis have to install deep wells, which is neither cost effective nor easy to achieve with the art of hand drill percussion local drillers. "
His research is in collaboration with the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, and is funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The results of a similar study in Vietnam, co-written by Bostick, van Geen, were published last year in the journal Nature.
