Ground water, a replenishable natural resources requires scientific studies for its utilization for various socio-economic development. Groundwater exploration is warranted as a follow up of various geo-scientific surveys and investigation. Since 1980s arsenic contamination in ground water has been detected in West Bengal and the recent studies have revealed that out of 341 community development blocks, 104 are having arsenic contamination in ground water above permissible limit, that is, 0.01 mg/L. Studies also revealed that relatively younger aquifers occurring at shallower depth range have arsenic contamination in groundwater above permissible limit while the deeper older alluvial formations are devoid of arsenic. The Central Ground Water Board, using an innovative drilling technique that separates the top contaminated aquifers from lower safe aquifers through cement sealing and the aquifers are delineated through lithological and borehole logging. A case study from ongoing project in Hugli district is discussed in this chapter.
Elsevier, Amlanjyoti Kar, D.G. Dastidar, S.K. Adhikari, A.K. Sinha, T. Talukdar, A.N. Chowdhury, Prachi Gupta, Ankita Bhattacharya
