Impact case study database

UCL’s research into arsenic pollution of groundwater and the hydrodynamics of the Bengal Aquifer System in Bangladesh has had significant impacts on policy, practice and public health security in Bangladesh, 2014-2020. UCL’s research has guided the development and refinement of national policy on groundwater pumping in response to the groundwater arsenic crisis in Bangladesh and has underpinned practical approaches adopted by the Department for Public Health Engineering (DPHE) and the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) towards arsenic mitigation and groundwater monitoring. This has led to improved public health security and security of access to safe water supplies across the region. Key UCL research findings have been shared widely with stakeholders beyond academia, partly as a natural outcome of the collaborative nature of the research, to which Bangladesh government departments contributed through provision of access and data. The reach of the impact was extended by Burgess co-convening successive national conferences and workshops in Bangladesh (2013, 2014, 2017 and 2020). Furthermore, Burgess was interviewed on BBC ‘Science in Action’ (25/6/2017), broadcasted via the BBC World Service platform (weekly viewers 350,000,000) ( S1). Globally, the research has contributed to the implementation of UNICEF policies relating to investigation and mitigation of arsenic contamination and to water resource security assessments by the World Bank. In India, UCL’s research has influenced the development of national guidance for groundwater monitoring under the National Hydrology Project.

UNICEF policy and directives on arsenic pollution, and implementation of World Bank assessments

UNICEF has been a leading international provider and facilitator of mitigating actions responding to the arsenic crisis in Southeast Asia. The organisation has adopted UCL’s explanation of the underlying processes and causes of groundwater arsenic in the Bengal Basin as the standard paradigm for understanding arsenic pollution in alluvial aquifers worldwide ( S2). UCL’s research provided fundamental support for UNICEF’s assessment of global health impacts of groundwater arsenic, which underpins its development of policies and directives for its country offices. By demonstrating that the existing state of contamination in Bangladesh was both predictable and manageable, UCL’s research notably facilitated UNICEF’s proposals for rational and effective responses ( S2, S3), which have continued to be implemented throughout the period 2014-2020. Significant projects supported by UNICEF and the World Bank since 2014, grounded in those proposals, include implementation of the Bangladesh Government’s Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) 15-year water supply and sanitation ‘Sector Development Plan’ 2011-2025 ( S4, S5). UNICEF Bangladesh’s former Water and Environmental Sanitation Specialist stated: “UCL’s arsenic programme [has] continued, to a significant degree, to define the research and policy agenda” ( S2). Separately, UCL research supported the World Bank's 2019 assessment of water security in Pakistan ( S6, S7), enabling a comprehensive review of groundwater depletion and identifying pollution as the greatest long-term risk to groundwater sustainability, with UCL’s contribution acknowledged by the World Bank Senior Water Resources Management Specialist for South Asia ( S8).

Guiding Bangladesh government policy development

The DPHE Policy Support Unit leads the development of government policy in the water supply and sanitation sector in Bangladesh. The Dhaka workshops “Deep groundwater in Bangladesh: UCL research in support of policy development” (January 2013), and “Groundwater monitoring in the Bengal Basin: research strategies and their policy implications” (November 2014), co-convened by Burgess for UCL, with Dhaka University and the DPHE-PSU, were attended by representatives of the DPHE, the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB), the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation, the Geological Survey of Bangladesh, the Water Resources Policy Organisation, and the donor (including UNICEF and WaterAid) and NGO communities ( S9). The advisory “Bengal Deep Groundwater Statement 2014, Deep Groundwater in Bangladesh - a vital source of water” ( S9), co-authored by the Workshops’ attendees, is acknowledged by the DPHE to have influenced their policy decisions ( S5) towards promoting the use of deep groundwater for water supply. The statement promotes deep groundwater as a long-term secure water source to mitigate the effects of arsenic and salinity in southern Bangladesh, identifying seven points of consensus around which policy should be framed, and making recommendations for extension of the national groundwater monitoring infrastructure. The DPHE Superintending Engineer confirms that “The outcomes [of UCL research] continue to help shape our policies and practices towards deep groundwater pumping across the southern Bangladesh” ( S5).

Informing arsenic mitigation programmes

The DPHE is the Bangladesh government authority with principal responsibility for arsenic mitigation through provision of safe water supplies. UCL research has been used by the Arsenic Management Division of the DPHE to develop deep groundwater pumping as a mitigation strategy ( S5). Decisions on the optimum depth of arsenic mitigation wells in the DPHE 2011-2025 WASH Sector Development Plan ( S4) were underpinned by UCL research on the spatial and depth-distribution of the arsenic source, and the hydraulic structure of the Bengal aquifer system. The Sector Development Plan describes national strategy for the investment of approximately USD20,000,000,000 in the water, sanitation and health (WASH) sector, of which approximately USD1,750,000,000 has been managed by DPHE over the period 2014-2020 ( S5). The DPHE Superintending Engineer acknowledges “the very significant impact your department’s [UCL Earth Sciences] research has had in the mitigation of the groundwater arsenic crisis in Bangladesh” ( S5).

Consensus framework for improving public health security

Deep groundwater in Bangladesh is free of excessive arsenic. The implementation of deep groundwater pumping strategies by DPHE between 2014 and 2020, through the 2011-2025 WASH Sector Development Plan ( S4), informed by UCL research ( S5, S9), is estimated to have reduced arsenic exposure – thereby enhancing health, welfare and quality of life – among a combined total of some 5,000,000 people across southern Bangladesh ( S5). Public health security has also been protected by the UCL research finding that arsenic pollution in Bangladesh is natural, and not caused by pumping for irrigation ( R1). This finding has helped underpin the maintenance of food-grain self-sufficiency in the country since 2000 to the present day ( S2). In 1998, there were demands both within civil society and at ministerial level for a ban on groundwater irrigation, then thought to be the cause of arsenic pollution. UCL research since 2000 catalysed and informed public debate about the issue, supporting counter-demands that ensured the continuation of groundwater irrigation. The enduring impact of this reversal is affirmed by the former UNICEF’s Bangladesh Water and Environmental Sanitation Specialist, who notes that UCL research “ created a consensus conceptual framework for understanding the problem and, in particular, quashing demands for a blanket ban on groundwater irrigation”, and “the overall impact of tubewell irrigation continues to this day to have a massive net benefit in terms of maintaining food-grain self-sufficiency in Bangladesh and India” ( S2).

Influence on groundwater monitoring practice

The BWDB is the Bangladesh government authority with responsibility for monitoring the quality and quantity of the groundwater resources nationally. McArthur’s research findings on the rate of groundwater flux at the arsenic source regions, and Burgess’s research on the rate of migration of arsenic towards pumping wells ( R4, R5), alerted BWDB ( S10) and UNICEF ( S2) to the requirements and timescales for groundwater monitoring. Burgess’s identification of the effects of aquifer poroelasticity ( R6) further alerted the BWDB to requirements for expansion of the national groundwater monitoring infrastructure. The research findings also influenced the BWDB’s approach to groundwater monitoring, in particular regarding the security of deep groundwater. It also informed their expansion of the national groundwater monitoring network, including 69 new monitoring points since 2019 [and continuing] and 905 piezometers selected for automation ( S10). BWDB continues to appraise the design of its national deep groundwater monitoring programme in light of UCL research, most recently through consultation at the UCL-convened workshops “Aquifer poroelasticity in Bangladesh: observations, modelling and implications for groundwater resources monitoring” (February 2017), and “Implications of aquifer poroelasticity for groundwater levels: what groundwater managers in Bangladesh need to know” (January 2020), both in Dhaka. According to the BWDB Director [of Ground Water Hydrology], “Over the past two decades…excellent fundamental research of the [UCL Earth Sciences] Department…helped the BWDB develop its approach to groundwater investigation and monitoring. At the 2017 and 2020 Workshops in Dhaka, guiding principles for groundwater monitoring in Bangladesh were proposed and re-affirmed by the wider community of…water managers in Bangladesh, leading to installation of clustered [monitoring] wells at 69 new locations all over the country…and 905 piezometers…selected for automation” ( S10). In India, UCL research on poroelasticity has influenced the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) and National Institute of Hydrology (NIH), through a Guideline document accepted by the National Hydrology Project in India being supplied to all State groundwater agencies ( S2).