Appraisal of treated drinking water quality from arsenic removal units in West Bengal, India: Approach on safety, efficiency, sustainability, future health risk and socioeconomics

Das, Antara; Joardar, Madhurima; De, Ayan; Mridha, Deepanjan; Ghosh, Swetanjana; Das, Bipradip; Mandal, Jajati; Thakur, Barun Kumar; Roychowdhury, Tarit

Abstract

The present study depicts the true failed scenario of the arsenic (As) removal units (ARU) in West Bengal by evaluating their treated water quality. Annual As removal efficiency of the 12 studied ARUs range between 35.2% and 82.6%. A comprehensive physico-chemical parameters and trace elements analysis find almost 25% and 16.7% of treated drinking water samples with poor water quality index (WQI) and high heavy metal evaluation index (HEI), respectively. The pond-based water treatment plant maintains the production of continuous As-safe water with a range between 60.2% and 66.7% due to its high Fe/As ratio. It’s a discontent concluding the treated drinking water of the groundwater based-ARUs were observed with sufficient As mediated cancer risk (3 ×10−3). The non-cancer risk (HQ) of As is safe for the surface water treatment plant (0.38), whereas it is threatening for the groundwater based-ARUs (7.44). However, the drinking water samples are safe in view of HQ from the other trace elements like Hg, Al, Cd, Cr, Pb, F- and NO3
-. Small scale ARU could be a feasible mitigation strategy in reducing the As menace in the long run if the plants are maintained correctly. Nevertheless, surface treated water is the most sustainable solution as withdrawal of groundwater for drinking purpose is not a viable practice.

Citation

Das, A., Joardar, M., De, A., Mridha, D., Ghosh, S., Das, B., …Roychowdhury, T. (in press). Appraisal of treated drinking water quality from arsenic removal units in West Bengal, India: Approach on safety, efficiency, sustainability, future health risk and socioeconomics. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 465, 133216. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.133216

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 7, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Dec 14, 2023
• Deposit Date: Dec 29, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 15, 2025
• Journal: Journal of Hazardous Materials
• Print ISSN: 0304-3894
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 465
• Pages: 133216
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.133216