Quality Parameters of Groundwater in Cox's Bazar District, Bangladesh with Reference to Arsenic

Abstract: Exposure to arsenic through tubewell water in Bangladesh has become a major health problem at mass level. Current investigation was carried out to assess the extent of arsenic (As) and its correlations with some water quality parameters e.g., Ca-hardness, Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), chloride, phosphate (PO 43- -P), silica and iron (Fe) in the groundwater of Cox’sBazar District (CBD), a representative administrative block of Bangladesh. Mean of Ca-hardness, TDS, chloride, PO 43- -P, silica, Fe and As content in the groundwater samples from CBD were 13.4, 8343.5, 141.9, 12.7, 21.1, 6.7 and 0.027 ppm, respectively. Arsenic content in the CBD-groundwater found to have non-significant negative correlation with Ca-hardness, TDS, chloride, silica and Fe content at 5% level while the correlation was positive for PO 43- -P. One-sample t-test showed variability among the samples was significant at 1% level for TDS, chloride, PO 43- -P, silica and Fe. Keywords: Arsenic, Groundwater quality parameters, Bangladesh.