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The shallow aquifer in Bangladesh, which provides drinking water for millions and irrigation water for innumerable rice fields, is severely contaminated with naturally‑occurring arsenic. Water‑balance calculations show that surface ponds and irrigated rice fields are the primary sources of recharge to this contaminated aquifer. I am studying both of these recharge sources. Differences in their recharge behavior and solute loads may explain the spatial patterns of groundwater chemistry that control arsenic concentrations.

Rebecca Neumann, a Ph.D. student in Environmental Engineering at MIT, is researching groundwater arsenic contamination in Bangladesh. During January 2008, Rebecca is on site in Bangladesh studying the role played by rice fields and ponds—the two primary recharge sources for the aquifer—in the arsenic contamination problem.