TUBEWELL PLATFORM COLOR: A QUICK SCREENING TOOL FOR ARSENIC AND MANGANESE IN DRINKING WATER

Arsenic (As) contamination in groundwater is a severe and adverse water quality issue for drinking purposes, particularly in Southeast Asia, where groundwater is the main drinking water source. Bangladesh is one of the countries where arsenic poisoning in groundwater is massive and it is essential to find out a reliable alternative safe drinking water source. In this process, it is very much needed to identify As-rich wells to avoid drinking water from them and to assess the extent of contamination as well. This study attempts to evaluate the potentiality of tube-well (TW) platform color as low-cost quick screening tool for As and Mn as well in drinking water wells (n=272).

The result shows strong association of red color platform with As-rich water in the corresponding wells compared to WHO guideline value of 10 µg/L (98.7% certainty) and regional (Bangladesh/India) standard of 50 µg/L (98.3% certainty). The sensitivity and efficiency of red color platforms to screen high As water in TW for 10 µg/L are 98% and 97%. Similarly, for 50 µg/L, it is 98% for both sensitivity and efficiency. However, because of a very low number (n=4) of TW platform stained with black color, it is not possible to make any conclusion on the potentiality of black color as a screening tool for Mn. This study suggests that red colored platform can be potentially used for primary identification of TWs with elevated As concentration and to prioritise sustainable As mitigation management. However, due to lack of tubewells with black colored platform in the study area, the use of platform color concept for screening of Mn enriched water in the wells have not been tested significantly, which deserves further study. This research project is one of the key investigation components of KTH-DU-NGOF joint collaboration project SASMIT (Sustainable arsenic mitigation) (2008-2013)