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Nature 454, 415-416 (24 July 2008) | doi:10.1038/454415a; Published online 23 July 2008

Environmental science: Poisoned waters traced to source

Charles F. Harvey1

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South Asia's well-water is widely polluted with arsenic, but no one has located the source. A study on the Mekong River finds that contamination begins in pond sediments, and is spread by groundwater flow to wells.

Millions of people living in the Ganges delta of Bangladesh and West Bengal drink groundwater contaminated by arsenic. Many more ingest arsenic-contaminated water drawn from wells along the Mekong and Red rivers of Cambodia and Vietnam, and probably also along the Irrawaddy River in Myanmar.

  1. Charles F. Harvey is in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
    Email: charvey@mit.edu

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