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Impact Of Excessive Pumping On Groundwater Quality: The Arsenic Problem Of The Ganges–Meghna–Brahmaputra Delta In Southeast Asia, Rhitwik Chatterjee, Mousumi Chowdhury

Journal of Environmental Science and Sustainable Development

This review of the impact of large-scale pumping on arsenic distribution reveals that groundwater-fed irrigation and domestic withdrawal impart tremendous stress on the limited groundwater resource base and disrupts the dynamic equilibrium of the groundwater system of the Ganges–Meghna–Brahmaputra (GMB) delta in Southeast Asia. Excessive groundwater extraction through pumping affects the groundwater quality in three major ways. First, excessive pumping transports atmospheric oxygen and organic-rich surface water to the subsurface. Second, it promotes arsenic build up in surface soil irrigated with arsenic-laced groundwater. Finally, it shifts groundwater replenishment zones lying at various depths near extraction points, thus, carrying dissolved arsenic …