Heavy Metal Pollution in Groundwater in and around Narayanganj Town, Bangladesh

In Narayanganj, neighbouring town of Dhaka, groundwater abstraction has increased at a faster rate from both the shallow Holocene alluvial aquifers and
deeper aquifer to meet the demand of increasing urbanization and industrialisation. Chemical analyses of groundwater from different localities of the town unveils that groundwater quality is poor due to presence of high trace metal concentrations in a number of samples. Higher concentration of trace metals, such as, arsenic, lead, cadmium, manganese, nickel, and barium along with some physico-chemical properties of groundwater (e.g. EC) illustrate that the groundwater quality is poor in the upper aquifer (20-40 m deep). The middle and lower aquifers also contain trace metals but at relatively low concentrations. Higher EC values are found extensively in the northern part of the town and also in some isolated thickly populated industrial areas. Interelemental relationship of trace metals in the groundwater implies that the high concentrations of these trace elements have been added from the industrial sources.