Urban and Industrial Pollution of the Aquifers of Narayanganj Town, Bangladesh

In Narayanganj, a rapidly growing and densely populated industrial town, groundwater abstraction has been increasing continuously to keep pace with urban development Groundwater is being tapped from the shallow. Holocene Alluvial aquifer and deeper Dupi Tila sands aquifer of Plto-Pleistocene age. As a consequence of the large-scale exploitation, water level has dropped to 15 m below ground surface and declining at a rate of 0 4 to 0 9 m/year. Groundwater electrical conductivity map depicts higher values (1000 to 2900 uS/cm) in the central and southern part, close to the Sitalakhya. River Analyses of hand tubewell (alluvial aquifer, 20-40m deep) and deep tubewell (Dupi Tila aquifer, 80-180m deep) water samples from different parts of the town reveal that there are marked vertical variations in groundwater quality. Shallow groundwater has higher dissolved solids, which demonstrates contamination in the upper aquifer and this is most pronounced in the industrial and thickly populated areas. Arsenic, lead, manganese, cadmium, etc are found to occur above the Bangladesh and WHO drinking water standards in a number of samples Present quality of the deeper aquifer is better in all respects, though there is a long-term risk of quality deterioration if proper water management is not practiced.