Addressing Arsenic Mass Poisoning in South Asia with Electrochemical Arsenic Remediation

Millions of people in rural South Asia are exposed to high levels of naturally occurring arsenic through groundwater used for drinking. Many arsenic remediation technologies and other safe water strategies have been deployed, but quickly failed because they were not maintained, repaired, accepted, or affordable. In this chapter, we review the development to date of electrochemical arsenic remediation (ECAR) and demonstrate its promise to cornerstone a comprehensive sustainable and scalable safe water solution for rural communities in South Asia, directly addressing the causes of previous arsenic remediation failures. Specifically, we present results from experiments in synthetic groundwater, field trials in West Bengal, waste sludge stabilization in concrete, development of a predictive chemical dynamic model of ECAR performance, and preliminary studies of Escherichia coli and MS2 virus removal using ECAR. These results suggest that ECAR is a promising technology with the potential to provide a sustainable, scalable, and comprehensive clean water solution in arsenic-affected areas of South Asia.