Assessment of arsenic and iron contamination of groundwater in four development blocks of Lakhimpur District, Assam, India

The increasing recognition of the wide geographic spread of arsenic contamination of groundwater has provided the motivation to carry out this study at a regional scale. The focus of the study is on rural rather than urban areas, due to the particular difficulties associated with applying mitigation measures in scattered rural communities. Forty eight groundwater samples were collected from tubewells and ringwells at different sites from four development blocks of North Lakhimpur sub-division during dry season. Arsenic and iron were analysed by using an atomic absorption spectrometer (Perkin Elmer AAnalyst 200) and uv-visible spectrophometer (Shimadzu 1240) respectively. The implications presented are based on statistical analyses of the raw data. Normal distribution analysis (NDA), t-test and correlation analysis are used for interpretation of data. Comparing the groundwater content of arsenic and iron with the recommended maximum values for drinking purposes, it is found that a good number of samples contain arsenic and iron at an alert and toxic level in the study area. Significant differences among mean, median and mode along with moment coefficients of skewness and kurtosis obtained for the studied parameter in the area show that sample frequency distribution curves differ from ideal Gaussian (normal). This study reinforced the extensive nature of arsenic and iron contamination of groundwater in the area under study and that, with continuous testing, more contaminated groundwater aquifers are bound to be identified

Author(s): Bhabajit Bhuyan

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