A three-year groundwater quality assessment programme in Cyprus found increased arsenic levels in drinking water.A novel field-based arsenic speciation separation technique determined that arsenate was the predominant species.
The Mediterranean island of Cyprus,with long dry summers and mild winters,suffers from water deficiency and overexploitation of its water resources.Therefore groundwater in Cyprus is a valuable natural resource,as about half of the total water needs come from underground water supplies.
According to the EU Directive 2006/118/EC,groundwater should be protected from deterioration and chemical pollution.This is particularly important for groundwater-dependent ecosystems,and for the use of groundwater as a water supply for human consumption.
Between 2007 and 2009,as part of a national monitoring programme,84 boreholes were sampled in Cyprus and subsequently analysed for total arsenic(As)using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry(ICP-MS).
The groundwater concentrations ranged from<0.3 to 41μg/litre As.Several boreholes in a rural farming district near Nicosia had concentrations above the World Health Organisation(WHO)Drinking Water Guideline limit of 10μg/L As.
Evaluation of the groundwater sampling procedure for boreholes provided data that recommended that water samples should be collected after an initial borehole washout for 5 min.
Further sampling of these boreholes in 2010 revealed total arsenic concentrations of<0.3 to 64.2μg/L As,with the predominant arsenic species–determined using a novel field-based methodology for arsenic speciation separation–being arsenate(AsV).
The maximum total arsenic concentration is six-fold higher than the WHO Drinking Water Guideline limit,and approximately half of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO)irrigation limit of 100μg/L As.
