india's first mass arsenic removal community-based programme to provide safe drinking water to more than 400 affected villages of West Bengal will begin in October. The Rs 9-crore project will be executed by the All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health ( aiih&ph). A large chunk of aid will come from the Indo-Canadian Environment Fund (icef) for a low-cost, low-maintenance and sustainable solution to solve the problem of arsenic-contamination.

"The five year-project will establish community groups to take action on the deadly problem through ground and surface water treatment,' aiih&ph director.