ABSTRACT
Groundwater arsenic contamination in Bihar first surfaced in the year 2002 from two villages, Barisbhan and Semaria Ojhapatti in the Bhojpur district located in the flood-prone belt of SoneGanga. Out of 38 districts in the state, 15 districts covering 57 blocks, have been identified as groundwater arsenic contamination above 50 μg/L. No studies, so far, have been initiated, exclusively on
1 INTRODUCTION
Arsenic (As) is the main contaminant in groundwater present naturally in India, China and Bangladesh in South Asia, causing a set of health symptoms known commonly as arsenicosis. For the rural areas of Bihar and West Bengal where hand-pumps and tube-wells are the only source of safe drinking water, As contaminant has emerged to cause a serious crisis threatening public health. Nearly 66 million people face health risks, of which an estimated six (06) million are children. Long-term exposure to arsenic through drinking contaminated water can result in a chronic arsenic poisoning. Known symptoms are: cancer of the skin, lungs, urinary bladder, and kidney as well as other skin changes such as pigmentation and thickening.
