Publications by authors named "Srimanti Duttagupta"
Article Synopsis
- A study at the Kendall-Frost Mission Bay Marsh Reserve in San Diego investigated tobacco-related pollutants, focusing on nicotine and cotinine levels in urban waters from November 2019 to February 2022.
- Sampling occurred at two outfall sites (Noyes St. and Olney St.) during both wet and dry seasons, revealing significant variations in nicotine concentrations, with a peak of 50.75 ng/L at Noyes St. compared to 1.46 ng/L at Olney St.
- The results indicated that nicotine levels were consistently higher during wet seasons, likely due to tobacco litter entering the reserve through stormwater runoff, highlighting the under-explored issue of tobacco pollution in urban natural reserves.
One of the potential impacts of climate change is enhanced groundwater contamination by geogenic and anthropogenic contaminants. Such impacts should be most evident in areas with high land-use change footprint. Here, we provide a novel documentation of the impact on groundwater nitrate (GW ) pollution with and without climate change in one of the most intensely groundwater-irrigated areas of South Asia (northwest India) as a consequence of changes in land use and agricultural practices at present and predicted future times.
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- Elevated fluoride in groundwater is a major health issue in India, impacting millions due to its widespread presence.
- Current studies often overlook the role of geological factors, like tectonics, in understanding fluoride distribution.
- Using machine learning (random forest, boosted regression tree, and logistic regression), researchers found that tectonics and water table depth are key predictors of fluoride levels, identifying high-risk areas and estimating that 257 million people are affected.
Agriculture-sourced, non-point groundwater contamination (e.g., nitrate) is a serious concern from the drinking water crisis aspect across the agrarian world.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has not only resulted in immense loss of human life, but it also rampaged across the global economy and socio-cultural structure. Worldwide, countries imposed stringent mass quarantine and lockdowns to curb the transmission of the pathogen. While the efficacy of such lockdown is debatable, several reports suggest that the reduced human activities provided an inadvertent benefit by briefly improving air and water quality.
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- Groundwater arsenic (As) pollution is a significant health risk across South Asia, particularly in India, affecting millions of people who rely on groundwater for drinking water.
- This study analyzed around 3 million groundwater sources in India to identify areas with elevated arsenic levels (≥10 μg/L) and the factors influencing its distribution, using statistical and machine learning methods for accurate predictions.
- Key findings reveal that geological conditions, irrigation practices, and elevation are major contributors to arsenic contamination, with about 90 million people currently exposed, particularly in states like West Bengal and Bihar, but the number could rise beyond 250 million when unmonitored areas are included.
Article Synopsis
- * The study examines the impact of human and economic development on groundwater microbial pollution in India, finding that while economic growth generally leads to improved sanitation, poor practices and water quality in certain areas can negate these benefits.
- * High-resolution modeling indicates that pollutants can move significantly faster in aquifers under certain agricultural practices, emphasizing the challenges in addressing water pollution despite efforts toward sustainable development goals.
Drinking water stress in South Asia is now widely known as a global paradigm. Extensive geogenic groundwater pollution is known in this area for a long time, specifically in the densely populated (~40 million) Western Bengal basin (WBB) of the state of West Bengal, India. Though anthropogenic-sourced groundwater pollution has been long suspected, it has been only sporadically reported thus far.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRole of aquifer media in determining the fate of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the natural water and sediments along the lower Ganges river basin.
J Environ Sci Health A Tox Hazard Subst Environ Eng
May 2020
Article Synopsis
- Groundwater quality in South Asia, particularly India, is heavily impacted by various pollutants, with limited studies on how anthropogenic pollutants, like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), affect it.
- A study found that lower and medium molecular weight PAHs, such as naphthalene and phenanthrene, were present in significant percentages of aquifer sediment samples in the Ganges river basin, but their levels in groundwater were much lower than in river water.
- Experiments revealed that certain PAHs adsorbed differently depending on sediment composition, and numerical modeling indicated that irrigation practices could significantly accelerate the movement of these pollutants in aquifers by up to 25 times.
Author Correction: Impact of sanitation and socio-economy on groundwater fecal pollution and human health towards achieving sustainable development goals across India from ground-observations and satellite-derived nightlight.
Sci Rep
December 2019
An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImpact of sanitation and socio-economy on groundwater fecal pollution and human health towards achieving sustainable development goals across India from ground-observations and satellite-derived nightlight.
Sci Rep
October 2019
Globally, ~1 billion people, mostly residing in Africa and South Asia (e.g. India), still lack access to clean drinking water and sanitation.
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