Spatial Distribution and Seasonal Variation of Arsenic in Groundwater of the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal
Keywords:
Arsenic, groundwater, seasonal variation, spatial distributionAbstract
A study was conducted in forty-one deep groundwater and twenty shallow groundwater wells of Kathmandu Valley, Nepal to assess arsenic contamination (shallow and deep groundwater) and spatial and seasonal variation in deep groundwater. The depths of the wells were ranged from 9 to 304 m. Groundwater samples were collected during pre monsoon and post monsoon in 2012. Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS) was used to measure the concentration of arsenic. In pre monsoon and post monsoon, 36.59 % and 31.70 % of deep groundwater wells, respectively exceeded permissible values of World Health Organization guideline value of 0.01 mg/L for drinking water. The arsenic varied spatially with high concentration towards central groundwater district. Negative correlation between arsenic and ORP showed reductive arsenic mobilization mechanisms in deep groundwater. There was very weak negative correlation between arsenic concentration and depth of deep groundwater wells. The t-test revealed that there is significant difference in concentration of arsenic in between shallow and deep ground water with higher values of arsenic in deep groundwater.
Journal of Institute of Science and Technology, 2014, 19(2): 7-13
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
The copyright of the articles is held by the Institute of Science and Technology, Tribhuvan University (IoST- TU). The views and interpretations in this journal are those of the author(s). They are not attributable to the IoST-TU and do not imply the expression of any opinion concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city, area of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The corresponding author is responsible for any conflict of interest between authors and others.
The articles in the Journal of Institute of Science and Technology are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- Share Alike 4.0 International License (CC: BY-NC), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, remix, transfer, and build upon the materials for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited.
