Assessment of arsenic contamination in soils and waters in some areas of Bangladesh

The soil samples and tubewell waters were collected from 25 locations repre senting five thanas of four districts of Bangladesh. The soils were collect ed from three depths viz. 0-15, 15-30 and 30-45 cm and tubewell waters were collected from same locations. The arsenic content of soils and waters wer e detected by Molybdenum blue method. The arsenic content in soils ranged f rom 1.27-56.68, 3.18-54.77, 1.27-50.95, 1.27-39.48 and 3.18-35.66 ppm in Ch apainawabganj Sadar, Kustia Sadar, Bera, Ishurdi and Sarishabari thanas, re spectively. Out of a total of 25 samples arsenic was detectable for 18 samp les at 0-15 cm, 17 samples at 15-30 cm and 15 samples at 30-45 cm depth. On e sample at 0-15 cm, 7 samples at 15-30 cm and 4 samples at 30-45 cm depth were found to be slightly contaminated. In tubewell water the arsenic conte nt measured from Chapainawabganj Sadar, Kustia Sadar, Bera, Ishurdi and Sar ishabari thanas were ranged 0.010-0.056, 0.010-0.071, 0.010-0.056, 0.010-0. 056 and 0.025-0.071 ppm, respectively. Out of 25 water samples 17 contained variable amounts of arsenic where 6 sampling sites contained arsenic level s above 0.05 ppm, and these sites are Rajarampur of Chapainawabganj Sadar t hana, Jordaha of Bera thana, Courtpara of Kustia Sadar thana, Nalgari of Is hurdi thana and Ijarapara of Sarisabari thana. Arsenic contained in soils w as positively correlated with arsenic content in waters.