Poor management and negligence has compelled villagers in several districts of West Bengal to drink water contaminated by arsenic even 18 years after the calamity was first discovered. People are suffering clinically and sub clinically, with more and more cancer cases cropping up in the affected villages. In many villages still people are not aware that they are victims of arsenic toxicity.

The School of Environmental Studies, Jadavpur University, has been working for about past 12 years on arsenic-affected areas, on people drinking contaminated water, on the probable number of people with arsenical skin lesions, and the source of arsenic as well as the mechanism of leaching into groundwater. This paper provides us with a recent survey report on arsenic-affected blocks in nine districts and a few important points as to how we can combat the situation.

Reprinted from The School of Environmental Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India