Arsenic concentration above the limit of 0.05 mg/l in drinking water is harmful to human health. Being a ‘slow poison’, consumption of ground water with elevated arsenic levels over a prolonged period of time can lead to skin lesions, hyperkeratosis, melanosis, cancer in different organs and several other health disorders, which can even cause death.

As majority of the population of West Bengal is dependent on groundwater for drinking purposes, spreading awareness about the ill effect of consuming arsenic contaminated water and about ways to mitigate the problem of arsenic contamination should be one of the priorities.

Heading in this direction, India Water Partnership with the support of Eastern Zonal Water Partner namely Kalyani Institute for Study, Planning and Action for Rural Change (KINSPARC) undertook a study on ‘Water, Sanitation and Health’ in some selected villages of Nadia district of West Bengal during 2010.

KINSPARC conducted a series of interactions with villagers from two gram panchayats and these two villages were identified for in-depth study, Iswaripur in Sarati and Chandamari in Kanchrapara. In both the locations, a series of meetings were conducted on problems commonly faced by the villagers, namely arsenic contamina-tion in the groundwater, sanitation, health, and livelihood facilities.

In Iswaripur, KINSPARC called the villagers for awareness meetings, and in Chandamari, apart from conducting similar meetings, water quality testing was also done on all 104 tube wells. Water test samples from the wells were grouped into three categories:

(i) "Safe": Arsenic concentration below 50 micro gm/liter, 28 tube wells;

(ii) "Moderately safe/unsafe": around 50 microgram/liter: 52 tube wells.

(iii) "Highly unsafe": above 50 mg./liter, 24 tube wells;

Water from seven public deep tube wells was also tested and found free from arsenic.

The KINSPARC team prepared a detailed pictorial map showing the location of the wells and labelling the wells as safe/moderately safe/ highly unsafe according to the concentration of arsenic in the water as explained above. The map depicting the quality of water was distributed among all the villagers for their reference.

The conducted tests show that all the shallow tube wells are arsenic contaminated to varying degrees. As advised by their leaders, villagers now generally use water from the deep tube wells for drinking while shallow and medium deep tube well water is used for non-drinking purposes, e.g. washing, cleaning, bathing etc. Some time after the study had been conducted it was observed that the local people became more aware of problems associated with the arsenic contamination of water. Earlier, a majority of the people in the village were either ignorant or indifferent but at present most of them are highly conscious of the problem and anxious about finding a lasting solution.

These workshop-cum-interaction meetings, especially because of the participation of village women who bear the main burden of water sourcing for the households, helped generate sufficient awareness among the ambivalent villagers, many of whom had earlier not been aware of the importance of safe drinking water. Hence, awareness and attitudinal changes among people generated by India Water Partnership through KINSPARC may be interpreted as a step towards mitigating the threat of an impending serious health threat to the community.  q