Arsenic exposure through groundwater to the rural and urban population in the Allahabad-Kanpur track in the upper Ganga plain

Abstract

This preliminary study reports for the first time that part of the rural population in the Allahabad district and the urban population in the Suklaganj-Kanpur of Unnao district in the Allahabad-Kanpur track of the upper Ganga plain are drinking and using for agricultural irrigation arsenic contaminated water (maximum arsenic concentrations in drinking water and urine are 707 and 1744 µg L⁻¹ respectively) mostly from shallow hand tube-wells (depth 7.5–40 m) without knowing that these are arsenic contaminated.