Research Paper Tackles South Asia Groundwater Issue

Madhumita Chakraborty, postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Earth and Environmental Geoscience at Washington and Lee University, co-authored a paper that was rec ently published in the peerreviewed journal Nature Reviews Earth & Environment.

Chakraborty worked on the groundwater arsenic issue in South Asia during her doctoral research at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Kharagpur, India. This research informed her contributions to this review work on the occurrence and dynamics of geogenic groundwater contaminants (GGCs) globally.

Titled “Arsenic and Other Geogenic Contaminants in Global Groundwater,” the article discusses the sources, occurrences and cycling of arsenic, fluoride, selenium and uranium, four types of GGCs that affect drinking water availability and safety. In some regions, up to 60% of groundwater sources have higher than recommended amounts of these GGC contaminants.

“GGCs pose severe threats to millions of people, especially in developing nations,” said Chakraborty. “Despite substantial existing research at local to subregional scales, there was a critical need for a globalscale synthesis of the nature, fate and transport of GGCs, which our review aims to comprehensively address. It’s truly inspiring to see global experts on GGCs come together for this effort.”

Chakraborty is in her second year as a postdoctoral fellow at W&L. She holds a bachelor of science degree in geology and a master of science in applied geology from the University of Calcutta (India), in addition to her doctorate from the IIT.