Diarrhoeal health risks attributable to water-borne-pathogens
in arsenic-mitigated drinking water in West Bengal are
largely independent of the microbiological quality of the
supplied water

Mondal, D; Ganguli, B; Sen Roy, S; Halder, B; Banerjee, N; Banerjee, M; Samanta, M; Giri, A; Polya, D

Abstract

Abstract: There is a growing discussion about the possibility of arsenic mitigation measures
in Bengal and similar areas leading to undesirable substitution of water-borne-pathogen
attributable risks pathogens for risks attributable to arsenic, in part because of uncertainties
in relative pathogen concentrations in supplied and end-use water. We try to resolve this
discussion, by assessing the relative contributions of water supply and end-user practices to water-borne-pathogen-attributable risks for arsenic mitigation options in a groundwater
arsenic impacted area of West Bengal. Paired supplied arsenic-mitigated water and end-use
drinking water samples from 102 households were collected and analyzed for arsenic and
thermally tolerant coliforms [TTC], used as a proxy for microbiological water quality, We
then estimated the DALYs related to key sequelae, diarrheal diseases and cancers, arising
from water-borne pathogens and arsenic respectively. We found [TTC] in end-use drinking
water to depend only weakly on [TTC] in source-water. End-user practices far outweighed
the microbiological quality of supplied water in determining diarrheal disease burden.
[TTC] in source water was calculated to contribute <1% of total diarrheal disease burden.
No substantial demonstrable pathogen-for-arsenic risk substitution attributable to specific
arsenic mitigation of supplied waters was observed, illustrating the benefits of arsenic
mitigation measures in the area studied.

Citation

supplied water. Water, 6(5), 1100-1117. https://doi.org/10.3390/w6051100

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 16, 2014
• Publication Date: Apr 29, 2014
• Deposit Date: Jan 22, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 5, 2016
• Journal: Water
• Publisher: MDPI
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 6
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 1100-1117
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/w6051100
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w6051100
• Related Public URLs: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/water
• Additional Information: Projects : Probabilistic Risk Assessment Modelling for groundwater Arsenic Mitigation