Belfast research team helps cut arsenic poisoning in south Asia

RESEARCHERS AT Queen's University in Belfast say they have found a solution to arsenic poisoning experienced by over 70 million people in eastern India and Bangladesh, which is linked to rising cancer rates in the area.

The southern Asian population is daily exposed to arsenic poisoning through drinking contaminated water and from eating rice and other foodstuffs irrigated with contaminated water. According to the World Health Organisation, for every random sample of 100 people in the Bengal Delta, at least one person will be near death as a result of arsenic poisoning, while five in 100 will be experiencing other symptoms.

Leading an international team, Queen's researchers have developed a trial plant in Kasimpore, near Calcutta, which offers chemical-free ground-water treatment technology to rural communities.

Known as TiPot (technology for in situ treatment of ground-water for potable and irrigation purposes), the technology involves drawing water from a subterranean aquifer (permeable rock), aerating it and then returning it to the aquifer.

At higher dissolved oxygen levels, soil micro-organisms, as well as iron and manganese, significantly reduce the dissolved arsenic level in the water.

Though technologies already exist to treat small quantities of contaminated water, until now there has been no viable technology for decontaminating ground water on a large scale. TiPot costs five cent per 1,000 litres.

Dr Bhaskar Sen Gupta, co-ordinator of the project, said the technology is the only method which is eco-friendly, easy to use and deliverable to the rural community user at an affordable cost.

The project is part of the EU-funded Asia Pro Eco Programme and the World Bank has given a further grant of $200,000 (€136,000) to the TiPot consortium to set up six more subterranean water-treatment plants in the Gangetic plains of West Bengal.

Dr Sen Gupta said that, from the beginning, they have had the support of Indian-based stakeholders, including village councils and local financial institutions.