Murdoch receives half-a-million dollars to remove arsenic from drinking water

The Australian Government’s overseas aid program AusAID has committed $583,000 over two years to fund Murdoch University researchers in their fight against widespread arsenic poisoning in India and Bangladesh.

An estimated 70 million poverty-stricken people are at risk of arsenic poisoning from contaminated Bengal Basin groundwater.

Up to four million people are already chronically affected by the poisoning that causes skin lesions and eventually cancer and death.

“The arsenic in the Bengal Basin groundwater occurs naturally but its effects are exacerbated by the region’s reliance on groundwater due to incredibly polluted surface water,” said Project Leader Murdoch Chemistry Associate Professor Pritam Singh.

“Murdoch’s research is expected to make a significant contribution to reducing arsenic poisoning by providing scientifically proven and cheap methods of removing the arsenic from the water.”

The research team also includes Indian and Australian scientists.

“The project objective is to screen a number of different remedial chemical techniques that are appropriate for use in Bangladesh and India,” said Professor Singh.

“If any of the chemical techniques investigated look promising they will be developed into a practical process.

“Such a process would also be useful in other countries that suffer similar arsenic contamination of drinking water such as Taiwan, Thailand, Mongolia, Japan, Chile, Argentina and the United States.

” Pro Vice Chancellor (Research) at Murdoch, Professor Val Alder, said the collaborative international project provided a fine example of the valuable role that universities today are playing in solving real life community problems.

She applauded the team from Murdoch as utilising their basic research experience to address this most significant problem for India and Bagladesh.

The project will be carried out in collaboration with the Regional Research Laboratory Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India.

The Murdoch team will also draw upon the expert knowledge of Murdoch Environmental Scientist Dr Eric Paling and Murdoch Visiting Professor R. G. Robins - formerly Foundation Head of the Department of Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy in the School of Mines at the University of New South Wales.

Also assisting will be Adjunct Professor DM Muir from CSIRO and Dr Ging Khoe of AquaRes Pty.Ltd, Sydney.

The team’s research could also have important applications for the minerals industry, including the removal of arsenic impurities from process solutions and effluents found in mineral processing plants.