progress article

Published online: 17 January 2010 | doi: 10.1038/ngeo750

Vulnerability of deep groundwater in the bengal

aquifer system to contamination by arsenic
W. g. burgess1*, M. a. hoque1, h. a. Michael2, c. i. Voss3, g. n. breit4 and K. M. ahmed5

Shallow groundwater, the primary water source in the Bengal Basin, contains up to 100 times the World Health Organization
(WHO) drinking-water guideline of 10 μg l–1 arsenic (As), threatening the health of 70 million people. Groundwater from a depth
greater than 150 m, which almost uniformly meets the WHO guideline, has become the preferred alternative source. The vulner-
ability of deep wells to contamination by As is governed by the geometry of induced groundwater flow paths and the geochemical
conditions encountered between the shallow and deep regions of the aquifer. Stratification of flow separates deep groundwater
from shallow sources of As in some areas. Oxidized sediments also protect deep groundwater through the ability of ferric
oxyhydroxides to adsorb As. Basin-scale groundwater flow modelling suggests that, over large regions, deep hand-pumped wells
for domestic supply may be secure against As invasion for hundreds of years. By contrast, widespread deep irrigation pumping
might effectively eliminate deep groundwater as an As-free resource within decades. Finer-scale models, incorporating spatial
heterogeneity, are needed to investigate the security of deep municipal abstraction at specific urban locations.

T
he Bengal Basin hosts the largest case of mass poisoning in
the world1. Excessive concentration of As occurs in shallow
groundwater 2 used for domestic supply by 70 million people,
30% of the combined population of Bangladesh and West Bengal,
India. Half the shallow hand-pumped wells have As concentrations
of 10–1,000 μg l–1 (ref. 2) and most inhabitants have no alternative
water source. The use of groundwater was initiated in the 1960s;
as a result much of the adult population has been exposed to toxic
levels of As for three decades. The health impacts are potentially
catastrophic3. Arsenic-affected groundwater has also been identi-
fied in fluvio-deltaic settings elsewhere in southeast Asia1,4,5.
The enormous scale of As contamination of shallow wells
became apparent during the 1980s in West Bengal6 and the 1990s
in Bangladesh7. No solutions have since been implemented that
provide As-free water to most of the affected population. (By As-free,
we mean water containing less than 10 μg l–1 As, the WHO drink-
ing-water guideline, rather than the regulatory limit in Bangladesh
and West Bengal, which is 50 μg l–1 As). Of the mitigation options,
installation of wells to As-free depths in the aquifer 8, usually taken
to be greater than 150 m (ref. 9), offers the most popular, practical
and economic solution1,10. In Bangladesh, more than 75,000 deep
hand-pumped wells had been installed1 by 2007. Since 2000, deep
wells yielding 2,500 m3 d–1 have been installed by local initiatives
in over 100 rural supply schemes11. Previously, the Bangladesh
Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) had fitted deep
wells with pumps, each capable of yielding 4,500 m3 d–1, at more
than 20 towns (DPHE, personal communication). Deep ground-
water continues to be targeted, however there is concern12 that
it may be vulnerable to invasion of As from shallow depths as a
consequence of pumping.
Deep wells offer a solution to another problem: saline ground-
water occurring at intermediate depth across most of the coastal
region13–16. Here, pumping ‘deep groundwater’ may induce invasion
by saline groundwater, which would be expected to precede arrival
of As at deep wells, owing to the different distributions and geo-
chemical behaviour of As and salinity. Our purpose is to review the
deep groundwater environments of the Bengal Basin (Box 1). With
reference to recent modelling results17,18, we focus on the vulnerability
of deep groundwater to invasion by As. Any development of deep
groundwater should be accompanied by chemical monitoring and
consideration of the possible requirement for treatment to mitigate
constituents such as iron, manganese and boron (ref. 19).
distribution of arsenic
Arsenic-rich groundwater occurs in reducing 9, grey-coloured,
Holocene sediments20 at depths less than 150 m (Box 1). The As
originates in association with a ferric oxyhydroxide coating of
Himalayan-derived sediment 21. Reducing conditions, sustained by
organic carbon, favour As release to groundwater by microbially
mediated22 reductive dissolution21 of the ferric oxyhydroxide. Spatial
variability of As at the 10–20 km2 scale has been related to organic-
carbon availability 23, local sedimentology 24–26 and groundwater
flow 27–30. Present uncertainties include the sources of carbon23,31,
the As sorption capacity of aquifer sediments32 and future trends in
As concentrations33.
Where reductive As release is absent, and yellowish-brown
oxidized sediments with a capacity for As sorption exist, ground-
water is As-free, notably in Pleistocene and older deposits deep
beneath reduced Holocene sediments34,35 and at shallow depth
in the vicinity of Pleistocene inliers2,36 (Box 1). Arsenic-free
conditions also occur in grey, reduced Pleistocene sediments
at depth37. In a national survey of Bangladesh2, of the wells at a
depth greater than 150 m (which were principally in the coastal
region), fewer than 1% exceeded 50 μg l–1 and 95% had less than
10 μg l–1. Arsenic concentration was generally negligible at depths
greater than 200 m, attributed to the geochemical context 31,37, the
refractory nature of sedimentary organic matter 27 and/or history
of groundwater flushing 2,38. A compilation of surveys2, 12,19,39 giving
a broader coverage of the basin (Fig.1) indicates that As exceeds
10 μg l–1 in 18% of deep hand-pumped wells sampled, but whether
this is a result of breached well casings or hydrological response to
pumping remains uncertain.

Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK, 2Department of Geological Sciences, University of
1

Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19716, USA, 3US Geological Survey, 431 National Center, Reston, Virginia 20192, USA, 4US Geological Survey, Box 25046 MS
964D, Denver, Colorado 80225, USA, 5Department of Geology, University of Dhaka, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh. *e-mail: william.burgess@ucl.ac.uk

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progress article
deep groundwater in the bengal aquifer system
The shallow floodplain aquifer is locally separated from deeper
groundwater by a silt-clay aquitard in places, for example in West
Bengal25,39, western Bangladesh33 and Khulna in the southwestern
NATure GeOScieNce doi: 10.1038/ngeo750
coastal region14. An aquitard has been reported as regionally persist-
ent across central40 and southeast Bangladesh16. At Khulna, ground-
water has been pumped from 200 to 350 m depth for municipal
supply for over 30 years without inducing vertical flux of As or

Box 1 | The Bengal Aquifer System

The Bengal Basin (a) bounded by Precambrian shield and hilly areas,
internally comprises a sedimentary sequence of Late Cretaceous–
recent age, up to 20 km thick. The long history of predominantly
alluvial/fluviatile/deltaic deposition across the region, and basin
subsidence50, provide the geological basis for expectation of perme-
able sediments to depths of many hundreds of metres. Groundwater
is pumped from the basin sediments from a present maximum
depth of 350 m. Excessive As concentrations are largely restricted
to the uppermost 100 m across the floodplains (a). A marine clay
of basin-wide extent, the Mio-Pliocene Upper Marine Shale, prob-
ably acts as a hydraulic basement at roughly 1,200–2,000 m depth
to the aquifer system (called here the Bengal Aquifer System, BAS),
comprised of Plio-Pleistocene–Holocene sediments (b). The BAS
hosts a number of regional aquifers that are hydraulically connected
on a basin-wide scale. Plio-Pleistocene sands and silts deposited
in a braided to meandering fluvial setting44 make up the Dupi Tila
Formation which forms aquifers44 across the Madhupur and Barind
tracts. Episodes of sustained weathering during eustatic sea-level
low stands from the Early Pleistocene are reflected in the regionally
extensive oxidation of sediments of the central and northern part
of the basin. These sediments yield As-free groundwater to depths
of at least 250 m, as illustrated in c, a conceptual, bimodal sand–
clay representation of the aquifer environments. Holocene sands,
silts and silty clays beneath the active floodplains overlie Pleistocene
sediments to a depth generally of about 100 m in the south.
Formation of the BAS over Plio-Quaternary time (b) took place
under conditions of eustatic cyclicity, with deposition, subsidence
and erosion occurring in channels and interfluves across
the floodplain. Arsenic-rich groundwater occurs in reducing9
grey-coloured Holocene sediments20 at depths less than 150 m.
Accommodation from subsidence50 of 2 mm yr–1 broadly across
the basin allowed approximately 200 m of sediment to accumulate
over the past one million years (Myr). This time interval includes
ten eustatic cycles, each with an effective sedimentation time of
ten thousand years (kyr) (b). These sediments host ‘deep’ ground-
water in the south of the basin (b,c). They include yellowish-
brown, oxidized sands containing ferric-oxyhydroxides that
adsorb As and grey sediment with As largely bound to pyrite
(Supplementary Fig. S2).
Stacking of stable channel sands and adjacent interfluve
deposits produced by repeated eustatic cycles resulted in the
occurrence of belts of thick sands, and finer materials with
limited lateral extents (c) across the southern part of the basin
(Supplementary Fig. S1). However, channel migration and
dynamics of the depositional engine distributed the strata such
that nearly all boreholes intersect multiple layers of high and
low hydraulic conductivity. Groundwater flow systems ranging
from shallow to deep are developed within the BAS, driven by
topography17 and influenced by the presence of layers of low
hydraulic conductivity.

a b
SSW
Himalaya NNE Madhupur Tract
BHUTAN Bay of Bengal
NEPAL 0
<20 kyr
?
100
Depth (m)

? 20 kyr to 1 Myr
200 Fault
River

1 to 3.5 Myr ?
300
Shillong Plateau
aputra

Top of ‘Upper
? Marine Shale’
~1,500 >3.5 Myr
Barind
Brahm

100 km
Tract Sylhet Basin
ld
ie

Madhupur Mio-Pliocene Plio-Pleistocene Pleistocene

Sh

Tract (Pre-glacial high stand) (Early glacial cyclicity) (Glacial cyclicity)

ian

Ga
ng BANGLADESH
Ind

Hill Range
r

es
ive

Riv Dhaka
aR

e
r
Holocene Holocene Recent
ghn

Comilla (Transgressive sediments) (High–stand deposits) (Subaqueous delta)

Me

WEST
an
Indo-Burm

BENGAL
Khulna
Kolkata c Late and Early Holocene–Late
Pleistocene boundary Pleistocene boundary

Holocene-Early Late and Early

N Sundarbans Dhaka
Pleistocene boundary Holocene boundary Khulna Sundarbans

Bay of Bengal nic

arse
0 50 100 ?
km tain Palaeo–
Arsenic Con
free ? channel
?
Stacked
Stacked channel
inter-fluve sand region
region Arsenic
Igneous and free Arsenic
metasediments Pleistocene Tertiary ? ? free
~100 m

? Subsiding
? subbasin

~50 km
As-
Holocene Water affected area Oxic sand Oxic clay Grey sand Grey clay

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NATure GeOScieNce doi: 10.1038/ngeo750 progress article
chloride-rich water from shallower levels14; similar experiences13 at
other coastal towns have encouraged the view that a ‘deep aquifer’
Himalaya
might be developed more widely 1,13. 27° N NEPAL
BHUTAN

Data from more than 2,000 deep boreholes12 have recently

allowed a better-constrained interpretation of prevalent but laterally
26° N Igneous and
discontinuous aquitards (see Supplementary Fig. S1), with multiple

r Rive
metasediments
layering leading to an effective large-scale vertical anisotropy 41 in

aputra
Shillong Plateau
hydraulic conductivity. The resulting isolation of deep groundwater Barind

Brahm
flow from shallow flow, and maintenance of vertical differences in 25° N Tract
Pleistocene
Sylhet Basin

Latitude
hydraulic head, is similar to the effects of extensive aquitards. The

d
iel
Madhupur

Sh
distinction is that discontinuous aquitards could locally focus ver- Ga Tract

ian

Hill Range
r
ng BANGLADESH

ive
es
tical flow 25, providing pathways for invasion of deeper sediments

Ind
24° N Riv Dhaka Tertiary

aR
er
by shallow groundwater where deep pumping imposes a downward

ghn
Me
WEST

an
hydraulic gradient. At issue is the conceptualization of lithological

heterogeneity and its representation in models. The effective anisot-
ropy provided by multiple discontinuous layers of silty-clay has been
applied to describe a single, anisotropic aquifer at the scale of the
entire Bengal Basin18. We summarize the As-free, deep groundwater
environments of the Bengal Aquifer System (BAS) in the context of
the basin’s geological evolution (Box 1).
defences against invasion of deep groundwater by as
Groundwater flow paths to deep pumping wells provide an element
of protection if As concentrations in recharge areas are low, or travel
times to deep wells are long. This is called the ‘flow-pattern defence’.
The potential for sediments along induced flow paths to adsorb or
otherwise trap As provides a ‘geochemical defence’. Wells should
optimally be screened in locations protected by a combination of
flow pattern and geochemistry, but where deep groundwater is ulti-
mately vulnerable, the elapsed time before As arrival at pumping
wells is critical. Geological interpretation can define the contexts of
deep groundwater vulnerability, and the timescale of As arrival may
be estimated using groundwater models and geochemical analyses,
but acceptable timescales for security of supply are an economic and
political consideration1.
Flow-pattern defence of deep groundwater. Groundwater flow
paths to wells are controlled by spatial patterns of aquifer proper-
ties, hydrological surface conditions, aquifer geometry and the
distribution of pumping. Flow patterns in the BAS have recently
been evaluated by groundwater model analysis17,18 using a single,
basin-scale, vertically anisotropic, homogeneous aquifer representa-
tion41, calibrated against groundwater heads and ages17. Conditions
at the coast were represented by prescribing the equivalent freshwa-
ter head of water with a density of 1.025 kg l–1 and depth determined
by bathymetry over an extensive offshore region, with a no-flow
boundary at the southern limit of the model. Model robustness was
demonstrated across a variety of boundary conditions and a range
of parameter values17. The recharge provenance of ‘deep’ groundwa-
ter relative to shallow As sources, and the travel time from recharge
to deep wells, were evaluated for basin-wide groundwater devel-
opment and a range of development scenarios17,18 (Fig. 2). Deep
pumping for domestic supply, with and without shallow irrigation
pumping, was found to minimally perturb the subhorizontal
flow paths from distant recharge zones. The flow-pattern defence
protected groundwater at depths greater than 150 m across more
than 90% of the As-affected area (Fig. 2c) indefinitely (modelled
as more than 1,000 years18) if deep groundwater abstraction was
limited to domestic supply and distributed among hand-pumped
wells18. A south-central subregion stands out as more vulnerable
to vertical flow on account of basin geometry, consistent with the
south-central As anomaly (Fig. 1).
Suggestions that high-As irrigation water leads to accumulation
of As in rice grains42, human exposure, and threats to sustainable
agriculture43, might prompt widespread use of deep As-free ground-
water for irrigation. However, the rate of irrigation pumping is about
Indo-Burm
BENGAL
Khulna
23° N
Kolkata
Holocene
N Sundarbans
22° N Water
Bay of Bengal
0 50 100
km
87° E 88° E 89° E 90° E 91° E 92° E
Longitude
As concentration: < 10 µg l–1 10–50 µg l–1 > 50 µg l–1
Figure 1 | Arsenic concentration at hand-pumped wells in the Bengal Basin,
depths greater than 150 m. Data (1,165 records) compiled from refs 2, 12, 19
and 39 are all reported as laboratory analyses. Generalized geology and
structural elements are indicated.
ten times that of domestic pumping 44. Simulations17,18 show that
deep irrigation pumping would amplify downward flow, consider-
ably shortening travel times to deep wells, to as little as 30 years,
and would create large drawdowns in water level (for example, of
20 m to 40 m at pumping depth), disabling deep hand-pumps and
rendering some powered pumping uneconomic. Deep irrigation
pumping thereby risks eliminating deep As-free groundwater as a
source of domestic supply (Fig. 2b). In contrast, shallow irrigation
pumping does not compromise the flow-pattern defence of deep
groundwater (Fig. 2c), but provides extra protection by creating a
hydraulic barrier against downward As migration.
Basin-scale analysis captures large-scale flow processes, but
geological heterogeneity might locally allow more rapid penetra-
tion of As to deep groundwater. A zone of excessive As in deep
groundwater of west-central Bangladesh, where more than 10% of
wells at depths greater than 200 m have concentrations of As higher
than 50 μg l–1, is attributed to the presence of thick Pleistocene pal-
aeochannel sands of the proto-Ganges allowing migration of As
to depth1. Future modelling analysis at subbasinal scale should be
applied within the larger-scale framework and incorporate spatial
heterogeneity, particularly where layers of low hydraulic conduc-
tivity are rare and earlier As breakthrough might occur. While
spatial heterogeneity continues to generate uncertainty, factors of
safety are desirable, such as the 1,000-year timeframe of the basin-
scale models.
Geochemical defence of deep groundwater. The geochemical
defence is restricted neither by depth nor stratigraphy but by reac-
tivity within the sediment. The hydraulic characteristics of grey
and yellowish-brown BAS sediments are similar, but their distinct
chemical characteristics, evident in contrasting groundwater compo-
sitions25,35, reflect the geochemical processes that may retard As in the
groundwater flow field.
Ferric oxyhydroxides have a large capacity for adsorbing dissolved
As (refs 45,46) (Fig. 3a) as demonstrated for oxidized, Pleistocene
sediments west of Dhaka35 and in central Bangladesh32. Adsorption

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progress article NATure GeOScieNce doi: 10.1038/ngeo750

a b c
km
N
0 40 80 160 240

India

Bangladesh

Bangladesh
India

Figure 2 | Simulated regional outcomes of strategies for pumping deep groundwater from the BAS, based on the flow-pattern defence. a–c, Land-
surface elevation is shown in grey-scale. The dashed black contour encloses the high-As region (As concentration greater than 50 μg l–1 in shallow
groundwater). The black contour represents the Bangladesh border. The high-As region is coloured red (a), and the blue contour indicates the model
boundary. b, Deep pumping for domestic supply and irrigation: regions with As-free recharge areas or travel times longer than 1,000 years to deep wells
are coloured green; regions with travel times shorter than 1,000 years from high-As recharge areas are coloured red; hatching indicates regions where
domestic well lift would be more than 8 m. c, Deep pumping for domestic supply, with shallow pumping for irrigation: colours and symbols as in b. Figures
reproduced with permission from ref. 18: a–c, © 2008 NAS.

a b As is bound principally in authigenic pyrite37 (Fig. 3b). Arsenian

50 µm
pyrite has also been identified, at lower abundance, in deep sands,
consistent with a strong correlation of As and sulphur (ref. 37).
Accumulation of As in pyrite is a progressive diagenetic change
constituting a refractory As sink in reducing environments. The
effectiveness of As sequestration by actively forming pyrite within
the deep sands is uncertain however, as is the adsorption capacity of
framework grains within grey sediment. The contribution of these
processes to the geochemical defence of deep groundwater requires
further evaluation.

10 µm conclusions and uncertainties

Figure 3 | Arsenic-enriched phases from the BAS. a, Scanning electron
micrograph of botryoidal ferric oxyhydroxide in oxidized sediment (at a
depth of 1.6 m near Brahmanbaria, 70 km east of Dhaka, Bangladesh).
Phase accumulated approximately 0.3 wt% arsenic, by oxidation and
adsorption at the top of the saturated zone (ref. 45). b, Distribution of As in
pyrite from a depth of 260 m (Rajoir, 60 km south of Dhaka, Bangladesh).
The brightest colours indicate As contents close to 0.5 wt% whereas dark
areas contain less than 0.05 wt% of As. The circular areas are early formed
framboids, which tend to contain less As than later, massive, infilling pyrite
(from ref. 37).
capacity depends on sediment composition and history of expo-
sure to As-rich, reducing water. Oxidized sediments proximal to
the Pleistocene inliers and boundary hills are likely to have high
adsorption capacity because of sustained oxic recharge; laboratory
experiments35 confirm this, and indicate that adsorption is enhanced
by the oxidizing potential of in situ manganese oxides. In contrast,
isolated lenses of oxidized sand are likely to have been exposed to
variable amounts of reduced groundwater, and their oxidizing and
adsorption capacities correspondingly depleted.
Grey Pleistocene sediments37 also have geochemical attributes
contributing to security against As invasion47,48. Deep, grey sediment
in southern Bangladesh contains less than 1 to 210 ppm As, where
groundwater consistently contains less than 10 μg l–1 As (ref. 47). The
highest As contents were detected in grey micaceous silts, in which
Studies of the hydraulics13,14,44,49 and geochemistry 14,32,37,47 of BAS
at depths greater than 150 m are few. Further lithological descrip-
tions, measurement of hydraulic properties and groundwater head
profiles, sediment mineralogical and sorption properties, water
ages, and groundwater modelling analysis are necessary to improve
evaluations of the vulnerability of deep groundwater to invasion
by As.
Present groundwater models addressing the flow-pattern
defence are limited by the paucity of hydraulic head data available
for depths greater than 150 m, but they strongly suggest that
without invoking the geochemical defence, widespread deep
irrigation pumping might effectively eliminate deep groundwa-
ter as an As-free resource for domestic supply, possibly in less
than 100 years. Consensus in evaluating the long-term secu-
rity of deep hand-pumped wells remains to be achieved, but
modelling indications are favourable. Deep municipal abstraction
may be deemed economically and socially acceptable if secure
for a more limited, but still substantial period before invasion
by As or salinity. Modelling approaches need to be refined to
elaborate the timescales of the security both of deep municipal
and hand-pumped abstraction. To maximize the security of deep
As-free groundwater, domestic wells should be screened as deep
as possible within oxidized sediments. Domestic abstraction of
shallow As-free groundwater in oxidized Pleistocene sediments
relies solely on the geochemical defence19. In relation to both
situations, the processes and limitations of As sorption need
further investigation.

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NATure GeOScieNce doi: 10.1038/ngeo750
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acknowledgements
We thank J. Davies for discussion of concepts informing the description of the Bengal
Aquifer System. M.A.H. is in receipt of a scholarship (BDCS 2006-37) from the
Commonwealth Scholarship Commission.
author contributions
All authors collaborated equally in the preparation of the manuscript.
additional information
The authors declare no competing financial interests. Supplementary information
accompanies this paper at www.nature.com/naturegeoscience.
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