Comment on "Arsenic Mobility and Groundwater Extraction in Bangladesh" (II)

Abstract

We are troubled, however, by the argument that groundwater pumping for irrigation increased the penetration of DOC into the subsurface and therefore caused the release of arsenic into the groundwater. We believe that the data in (1) and related information from other regions of Bangladesh could be equally well explained without invoking a response of groundwater arsenic to irrigation pumping. This is an important point, because policy-makers in Bangladesh and elsewhere should not be confronted with the false dilemma of elevated arsenic in groundwater caused by irrigation or insufficient agricultural production.