Reliability of a commercial kit to test groundwater for arsenic in Bangladesh

A comparison of field and laboratory measurements of arsenic in groundwater of Araihazar, Bangladesh, indicates that the most widely used field kit correctly determined the status of 88% of 799 wells relative to the local standard of 50 mug/L As. Additional tests show that the inconsistencies mainly underestimates in the 50-100 mug/L As range, can be avoided by increasing the reaction time from 20 to 40 min. Despite this limitation, the field data already compiled for millions of wells by the Bangladesh Arsenic Mitigation and Water Supply Project, in combination with information on well location and depth, should prove to be extremely useful to prioritize interventions in thousands of affected villages.