Performance Evaluation of Existing Community Level Arsenic Removal Plants for Arsenic Free Drinking Water Supply in Jessore and Jhenidah Districts of Bangladesh

Abstract

The use of groundwater as drinking water in Bangladesh is favoured by its easy availability, microbial safety and absence of proper infrastructure for treatment and distribution of surface water. As a result, millions of people are affected by widespread arsenic poisoning through drinking water drawn from underground sources containing arsenic at concentrations well above the permissible limit of 50µg/L. Since 2000, hundreds of community level arsenic removal plants have been installed in the southwest region of Bangladesh. However, the performance of the plants over time is hindered by lack of information due to the absence of long term water quality monitoring information. The objective of this study is to evaluate the performance of existing community level arsenic removal plants. In this study, we selected five arsenic removal plants (four plants were Arsenic Iron Removal Plant, namely AIRP; and one Granular Ferric Hydroxide Based Arsenic Removal Unit, namely SIDKO) located in Jessore and Jhenidah district. All AIRPs and SIDKO achieved the Bangladesh standard for arsenic in drinking water of 50µg/L. The AIRPs removed 64% of influent arsenic on average. However, the SIDKO removed 80 % of influent arsenic. Treated water quality parameter (such as pH, EC, TDS, PO 4 3-, As, NO 3-) of the plants were within the WHO standards, except NH 3 (0.01-1.89 mg/L) and Fe ++ (1.0-1.21 mg/L) for long term uses.