Abstract
Nawalparasi-West/Parasi is one of the severely affected districts in the Terai lowlands of Nepal by arsenic (As) contamination in groundwater, exceeding standards of 10 ppb (WHO) and 50 ppb (Nepal Drinking Water Standard). This study presents the spatial and temporal distribution of As across 6 km × 10 km region in Parasi via meteorological, hydrogeological, physio-chemical, and sedimentological investigations in 31 communities for about 5 years. In this study, water balance analysis was carried out for understanding the groundwater dynamics in the study area and its contribution to As elution. Gentle flow gradient and little to no infiltration was observed in the central region with relatively impervious silty clayey flood plain, where higher As concentrations were obtained compared to the northern Siwalik foothills and southern parts with coarser sediments. Similarly, higher As concentration (1048 ppb) was recorded in the drier pre-monsoon season than the wet season (529 ppb). The aquifer at 12 to 23 m depth feeding 73% wells in the study area exhibited higher As concentration in reduced environment as opposed to the oxidizing state at 5- to 6-m and 30- to 50-m deep aquifers. Other constituents such as Fe, B, and Cr and their relation with As were analyzed. The results of GERAS model analysis done for health risk assessment are also presented which show that under long-term exposure, the residents in Parasi were undertaking intolerable cancer risk of 1.1 to 6.4 × 10−3. This study further incorporates socio-economic sentiments vital to analyze, and propose sustainable and cheap countermeasures for immediate implementation to reduce As exposure and health risk in Nepal, which is also highly applicable for other affected regions in South Asian Region.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge all the academic and non-academic staffs who helped to install experimental set-up and collect data during the investigation. The authors are grateful to anonymous reviewers for their critical comments that helps greatly enhance the quality of the manuscript.
Funding
The work was supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) through a program named, “Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research” with grant no. #23401006, and DOWA Holding Fund for laboratory works.
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First two authors have equal contribution in this manuscript. Writing original draft, visualization, literature review: Tunisha Gyawali; writing original draft, visualization, literature review: Susmita Pant; literature review, data collection, visualization, writing—review and editing: Keizo, Nakamura; literature review, data collection, visualization, writing—review: Takesi, Komai; conceptualization, supervision, writing—review and editing: Shukra Raj Paudel.
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Consent was taken from Prof. Nakamura and Prof. Komai from the Keiai University, and Tohoku University, Japan respectively. They are the co-author of this manuscript too, and they collected some first-hand data and developed some figures and tables.
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Highlights
• Arsenic is the major contaminant out of all other ions in the groundwater of Nawalparasi.
• Water balance analysis exhibits little to no infiltration with low groundwater flow gradient.
• Arsenic is more dominant in the central area with rich silt clay deposits than northern and southern parts with coarser sediments.
• The water stagnant conditions imply a reducible environment for As elution.
• Arsenic contamination was found to be higher during dry season than in the wet season.
• Countermeasures are proposed for As removal and exposure control for the region.
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Gyawali, T., Pant, S., Nakamura, K. et al. Spatial and temporal distribution of arsenic contamination in groundwater of Nawalparasi-West, Nepal: an investigation with suggested countermeasures for South Asian Region. Environ Monit Assess 194, 582 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-022-10276-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-022-10276-5