International Environmental Research
12/03/2007
The importance of groundwater (GW) towards shaping lives and livelihoods of millions of people in Bangladesh is paramount. In addition, to supplying water for drinking purposes, GW also helps achieve national development goals attaining food self-sufficiency through irrigation. Unfortunately, GW aquifers have been contaminated by arsenic, while there have been evidences that usable aquifer depths are on rapid decline in large cities including the capital Dhaka. Moreover, shallow aquifers supplying drinking water in the coastal areas have been salinized, which limited peoples’ access to safe drinking water. The faculty and students from EGS and Geology Department of SUNY New Paltz are currently conducting a hydrogeoloic research project to evaluate the salt water intrusion problem in costal aquifers of southwestern Bangladesh.
Professor Chowdhury is collecting GW water samples and field data from tube wells in Tala Thana, Shatkhira District, Bangladesh
A tube-well next to a pond which is vulnerable to contamination from the seepage of polluted pond-water
