Kolkata: Despite intervention by the National Green Tribunal (NGT), arsenic levels in water have gone up significantly in the Gaighata Block of North 24-Parganas, about 60 km from Kolkata, a report by the West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) has revealed. In some cases, arsenic levels have gone up by up to 200%, the report states.
Arsenic contamination in the Gaighata-Teghoria belt was first reported by The Times of India on August 24, 2015.
On November 27, 2015, NGT directed WBPCB to carry out a study in Gaighata. This was done on December 12, 2015 and samples from 55 bore wells were collected. Of the 27 state-owned bore wells, samples from 11 had arsenic levels beyond the permissible 10 ppb. Four of the samples had levels between 30 and 40 times the permissible limit. The report also stated that samples from all 28 privately-owned bore wells had arsenic beyond permissible limit. Of these, arsenic contamination in 13 samples was between 10 and 50 times of the permissible limit.
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