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Updated: Jul 17, 2026

Watershed Planning within a Quantitative Scenario Analysis Framework
Published on: July 24, 2016
Arsenic mobility and groundwater extraction in Bangladesh
Charles F Harvey1, Christopher H Swartz, A B M Badruzzaman
1Ralph M. Parsons Laboratory, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 01239, USA.
Abstract:
High levels of arsenic in well water are causing widespread poisoning in Bangladesh. In a typical aquifer in southern Bangladesh, chemical data imply that arsenic mobilization is associated with recent inflow of carbon. High concentrations of radiocarbon-young methane indicate that young carbon has driven recent biogeochemical processes, and irrigation pumping is sufficient to have drawn water to the depth where dissolved arsenic is at a maximum. The results of field injection of molasses, nitrate, and low-arsenic water show that organic carbon or its degradation products may quickly mobilize arsenic, oxidants may lower arsenic concentrations, and sorption of arsenic is limited by saturation of aquifer materials.
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