Threats to Sustainability

Abstract

The groundwater arsenic contamination is over three decades ago. Over the years, there have been slew of mitigation measures planned and executed by several private organisations as well as government bodies. Unfortunately, none of these have attained the elusive mark of sustainability. To decipher the crucial missing link using theoretical framework and observations from the field, we make an assessment of mitigation actions taken over the past three decades. By scrutinising these efforts, we try and comprehend the real reasons due to which the mitigation efforts have failed to yield the optimum results. In the process, we also try and reinforce the fact that the arsenic crisis should always have been considered and addressed as a socio-economic crisis rather than only a public health engineering one.