1.

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

Bangladesh is a low-lying, riverine country located in South Asia with an area
characterized by two distinctive features: a broad deltaic plain subject to frequent
flooding, and a small hilly region crossed by swiftly flowing rivers. The tropical
country has a total surface area of 147,570 square kilometers and an estimated
population of 149.7 million as of March 2011 (BBS2011). Of the surface area
available, about 70% is arable and about 10-15% comprises of forests and woodlands
(Ashfaque, 2007). Estimation by BBS 2008 shows that the contribution of the
agricultural sector to national GDP is about 21%, while majority (about 75%) of the
population lives in rural areas.

Arsenic contamination of the groundwater in Bangladesh is a serious problem. Prior to
the 1970s, Bangladesh had one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world.
Ineffective water purification and sewage systems as well as periodic monsoons and
flooding exacerbated these problems. As a solution, UNICEF and the World Bank
advocated the use of wells to tap into deeper groundwater. Over 10 million of wells
were constructed as a result; approximately one in five of these wells are now
contaminated with arsenic above the government's drinking water standard. From this
contaminated wells, huge rural population is the mostly affected by arsenic
contamination in drinking water.

Awareness about the presence of arsenic has been growing in last 20 years since its first
detection of arsenic (1993) in groundwater samples from the district of Chapai
Nawabgonj bordering the West-Bengal district of India. Since then, throughout
Bangladesh, as tube wells get tested for concentrations of arsenic and high levels of
arsenic have been detected in over 271 out of 554 upazilas in Bangladesh (Saha 2006).
Arsenic contamination has primarily affected the shallow aquifers, which are widely
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used for both domestic water supply and irrigation purposes. Major part of the
Groundwater abstraction is mainly during dry season for irrigation, particularly for
growing the dry-season paddy called Boro, which requires about 1 m of irrigation.
According to a recent BADC survey (BADC 2012-13), a total of 15,23,609 shallow
tubewells and 35,322 deep tubewells were used for irrigation during the dry season.
The contribution of groundwater to total irrigated area was over 75% in 2012-13, and
shallow tubewells accounted for over 60% of irrigated area.

1.2 Scope of Work

Millions of people worldwide are chronically exposed to arsenic through drinking
water, including 3557 million people in Bangladesh (BGS 2001). The association
between arsenic exposure and mortality rate has not been prospectively investigated by
use of individual-level data (Argos, Maria et al. 2010). However, this widespread
arsenic contamination of groundwater has become a major concern in Bangladesh since
the supply of water is heavily dependent on groundwater. To investigate the
contamination of arsenic a study was carried out by DPHE in 61 out of 64
administrative districts (BGS 2001). In some areas, arsenic concentration was found to
be as high as 1.0 mg/L compared with the WHO Guidelines for drinking purposes set at
0.01 mg/L (WHO 2011) and the same set in the Bangladesh standard of 0.05 mg/L
(GoB, 1997). According to the BGS study, about 27% and 46% of shallow (<150 m
deep) wells have arsenic concentration exceeding 0.05 mg/L and 0.01 mg/L,
respectively. In acute arsenic-problem areas, more than 90% of the shallow wells are
contaminated with arsenic. Ali et al. (2003) have estimated that about 46 metric tons of
arsenic is released in the environment each year via the groundwater extracted by
domestic wells.

It has also been estimated that in Bangladesh, if consumption of contaminated water
continues, the prevalence of arsenicosis will be approximately 2,000,000 cases and of
skin cancer will be approximately 100,000 and the incidence of death from cancer
induced by arsenic will be approximately 3000 per year (Harvey et al. 2003).

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However, relative to the extent of research on biogeochemical processes of arsenic
mobilization, very little work has been conducted to understand groundwater flow and
the transport of arsenic and the solutes that control its mobility. Groundwater flow,
either naturally driven or anthropogenic in type, controls the chemical input and output
into the subsurface thereby affecting the complex set of biogeochemical reactions that
mobilize or immobilize arsenic. Furthermore, groundwater flow patterns may create
areas within the subsurface where water from different sources and of different
chemical characteristics can mix, and thereby results in complex nature of
biogeochemical characteristics. In particular some water-balance data of the ground
water flow and transport of Arsenic explains the present geochemical conditions of
aquifers have been used to make inferences into the causes of the arsenic and
manganese problem. It has been inferred, through isotopic and chemical analysis of
end-member sources that the water at the depth of the arsenic peak is of pond origin,
though a plume emerging from a pond has never been captured (Neumann, R. B. et al.
2009). Currently, there exists a gap in knowledge on how these disturbances influence
the redox state of near-surface sediments and thus impact the mobilization of arsenic.
It is also unclear what patterns of flow the pond-water recharge follows. There has
been no study that directly observed the effects to the groundwater system resulting
from the introduction of a pond which, given that ponds are currently believed to be an
important factor in the mobilization of arsenic, is an area that deserves attention.
Furthermore a plume of recharge water from a pond has not been intercepted and thus
demonstrated conclusively that pond recharge is a major cause of arsenic mobilization
in Bangladesh.

1.3 Objective and Hypothesis

In rural Bangladesh, local features such as ponds, rivers, irrigation and drinking wells
are spaced at 10's and 100's of meters. Due to the flat topography of Bangladesh, these
features are likely to have significant impact on groundwater flow pattern (i.e.
recharge/discharge), which in turn, causes the small scale spatial variability in arsenic
concentrations. For example, at the end of the flooding season, the floodwater start to
recedes and the river levels drop quicker than ground (and pond) water levels, resulting
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in groundwater discharge to rivers. This scenario is changed once the groundwater
irrigation starts, resulting in recharge of groundwater from ponds, rivers, and surface
clay layers. This temporal nature of groundwater flow pattern results in contributions
and mixing of recharge waters from different sources such as surface water,
groundwater, rainwater, percolation of irrigation water, etc.

The groundwater system of Bangladesh has experienced dramatic changes over the past
four decades. Along with switching to groundwater for domestic supply, the country of
Bangladesh adopted wide scale groundwater irrigation of rice. With the population of
Bangladesh tripling in the past forty years, the volume of groundwater irrigation has
grown dramatically. Likewise, the construction of surface ponds, which are excavated
in order to build raised mounds for the establishment of villages, has scaled with the
population (Neumann, R. B. et al. 2009). The shift in groundwater flow paths and
increased flushing of the aquifer due to irrigation pumping, in conjunction with an
estimated 25-30% of aquifer recharge coming from ponds has likely altered the
geochemistry of the groundwater system significantly (Harvey et al. 2006). An in-
depth understanding of the influence of land surface modifications on the groundwater
system is thus crucial to answering questions about the mobilization and transport of
arsenic through aquifers.

Neumann, R.B. et al. (2009) explained after hydrogeological investigationsurmised that
chemical and isotopic indicators as well as groundwater simulations suggest that
recharge from ponds carries this degradable organic carbon into the shallow aquifer and
that groundwater flow, drawn by irrigation pumping, transports pond water to the depth
where dissolved arsenic concentrations are greatest. Furthermore, solute composition in
arsenic-contaminated water is consistent with that predicted using geochemical models
of pond-wateraquifer-sediment interactions (Neumann, R. B. et al. 2009).
SoTherefore, it would be interesting to the objective of this study becomes
investigatinginvestigate the influence of the construction of ponds on aquifer
biogeochemistry, and that pattern of arsenic contamination in the shallow aquifer
resulting from variations in the source of water, and the complex three-dimensional
patterns of groundwater flow.
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The primary objectives of the study include:
a) Studying the gGround water chemistry including Arsenic concentrations,
degradable organic carbon, phosphate, etc. around the subsurface of a newly
constructed pond in an arsenic affected area.
b) Applying a three-dimensional groundwater flow model to assess the effect of
ground water irrigation and recharge from the newly constructed pond.
c) Investigating the pattern of changing subsurface chemistry of the beneath of the
pond and surrounding subsurface, as a result of changing flow pattern due to
extraction of ground water for irrigation.

1.4 Organization of Thesis

This thesis consists of six chapters. Apart from the current "Introduction" chapter, the
remainder of the thesis has been divided into six chapters.
Chapter 2 ("Literature Review") provides an insight on the prevailing arsenic
mobilization hypotheses, and their comparative merits and limitations. The chapter also
further explains the study hypothesis.
Chapter 3 ("Study Area Data Assimilation") gives an overview of our study area in
Munshiganj.
Chapter 4 ("Water Chemistry at the Study Area") analyzes the chemistry results from
well clusters with lithology of the field site.
Chapter 5 ("Ground Water Model") describes the modeling works three-dimensional
seasonal model using Ground Water Vistas.
Chapter 6 ("Analysis and Discussions") presents results of the newly constructed Pond
effects.
Chapter 7 (Conclusion and Recommendation) presents the summery of the study on
Arsenic mobilization hypotheses and future work from this study.