FAR-GANGA - Future Secular Changes & Remediation of Groundwater Arsenic in the Ganga River Basin
Understanding the interactions and fate of arsenic for improved public health and economic development
Over 500,000,000 people live in the Ganga River Basin with a groundwater demand larger than that of any country outside India. Increased demand, due to population growth & economic development and decreased surface water supply is leading to increasing reliance on groundwater. Groundwater resources in the Ganga Basin, are however, vulnerable to contamination from surface chemicals, through natural aquifer recharge and managed aquifer recharge. Arsenic is the chemical in groundwater with by far the highest detrimental health impact, causing as many as 15,000 annual premature deaths in India. Key Research & Development areas include genesis of arsenic occurrence and mobilization, arsenic risk and vulnerability mapping, and remediation – all key themes of our FAR-GANGA project.
Project Vision
Our overarching aims are to:
(1) investigate the vulnerability of representative shallow sedimentary aquifer systems in the Ganges River Basin to secular increases in arsenic;
(2) predict future secular changes in groundwater arsenic
(3) report/communicate with key stakeholders regarding future hazards and risks, and how groundwater remediation practices and strategic selection of water remediation technologies and approaches might accordingly be modified to societal benefit.
The FAR-GANGA team brings together a successful and experienced India-UK cross-disciplinary team working at the interface between research biogeochemistry, hydrology and reactive contaminant transport modelling and practical water resource management. The India-UK team has highly relevant, complementary skills and collaborations, with a collective track record of attracting over £30 M of funding with over 700 refereed papers published in peer-reviewed international journals. FAR-GANGA is a collaboration between eight institutions: The University of Manchester (UK), National Institute of Hydrology (India), Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (India), British Geological Survey (UK), Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (India), University of Salford (UK), University of Birmingham (UK) and Mahavir Cancer Sansthan and Research Centre Patna (India).
Funding
FAR-GANGA is funded by DST-Newton Bhabha-NERC-EPSRC Indo-UK Water Quality Programme (NE/R003386/1 and DST/TM/INDO-UK/2K17/55(C) & 55(G))2018 – 2021)
People Involved
David Polya, University of Manchester, UK Principal Investigator; Environmental Geochemist
Biswajit Chakravorty, National Institute of Hydrology, India Principal Investigator; Hydrologist
Stefan Krause, University of Birmingham, Birmingham Lead; Co-Investigator; Ecohydrologist & Biogeochemist
Narayan Ghosh, National Institute of Hydrology, Senior Project Mentor; Hydrologist
Laura Richards, University Of Manchester, Researcher Co-Investigator; UK Project Manager; Environmental Engineer/Geochemist
Ashok Ghosh, Mahavir Cancer Sanshan & Reserch Center Patna, MCS Lead; Water Quality & Cancer Expert
Abhijit Mukherjee, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Kharagpur Lead; Hydrogeologist
Himanshu Joshi, IIT Roorkee, IIT Roorkee Lead; Environmental Hydrologist
Debapriya Mondal, University of Salford, Salford Lead; Co-Investigator; Environmental Epidimiologist
Daren Gooddy, British Geological Survey, BGS Lead; Co-Investigator; Hydrogeochemist
Vahid Joekar Niasar, University of Manchester, Co-Investigator; Chemical Engineer
Jon Lloyd, University of Manchester, Co-Investigator; Geomicrobiologist
Bart Van Dongen, University of Manchester, Co-Investigator; Organic Geochemist
Daniel Lapworth, British Geological Survey, Co-Investigator; Hydrogeochemist
Ben Marchant, British Geological Survey, Co-Investigator; Hydrogeochemist,
Associated Researchers (India-based) –
Arun Kumar, Mahavir Cancer Sansthan, Scientist; Arsenic and Cancer
Ranjit Kumar, Mahavir Cancer Sansthan, Scientist; Arsenic and Cancer
Neha Parashar, Mahavir Cancer Sansthan, (Former) Research Scholar; Remediation
Shreedipta Chaterjee, IIT Kharagpur, Research Scholar; Hydrology and Geochemistry
Prerona Das, IIT Kharagpur, Research Scholar; Hydrogeochemistry
Sumant Kumar, NIH Roorkee, Scientist C; Water & Wastewater Chemistry
Sidharth Suman, An College Patna, Research Scholar; Project Partner NUTRI-SAM; Arsenic and Health
Rupa Kumari, Mahavir Cancer Sansthan, Research Scholar; Remediation and Geochemistry
Associated Researchers (UK-based) –
Chuanhe Lu, University of Manchester, PDRA; Contaminant Transport Modelling
Sam Addison, University of Manchester, MPhil Student; Community Science
George Wilson, University of Manchester, MPhil Student; Community Science
Advisory Panel
English