From 2002-10-21 to 2002-10-26

Venue: Mar del Plata, Argentina

Summary:

In several developing countries, groundwater from sedimentary aquifers used for drinking purposes contain elevated levels of arsenic resulting from natural resources. In different countries in Asia such as in eastern India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Pakistan, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, the situation of arsenic toxicity is alarming. Arsenic occurrences in groundwater in Bengal Delta Plains of Bangladesh and West Bengal, India is one of the largest environmental health disaster of the present century, where at least 50 million people is at risk of cancer and other arsenic related diseases due to the consumption of high arsenic groundwater. In several Latin-American countries incidences of high arsenic in natural waters are reported from Argentina where at least 1.2 million people are affected, as well as from Brazil, Chile and Mexico. Among these, arsenic contamination of groundwater from geogenic sources, is an issue of primary environmental concern, which limits the use of these resources for drinking purposes, and hinders the economic and social development.

The workshop addresses the problem of arsenic contamination in groundwater of sedimentary aquifers on the following preliminary themes in 5 sessions:

- Natural arsenic in sedimentary aquifers-Sources and distribution
- Mobility controls of arsenic in groundwater and geochemical modeling
- Fate of arsenic in soil, water and crops
- Arsenic in food chain
- Environmental health and risk assessment
- Assessment of economic impacts
- Remediation of arsenic rich groundwater

Organizers: Darmstadt University of Technology TUD, Darmstadt, Germany
Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, India
Contact Name: Jochen Bundschuh
E-mail: jochenbundschuh@hotmail.com
URL: http://amov.ce.kth.se/PEOPLE/Prosun/workshop_Argentina.htm