Journal of Environmental Protection, 2014, 5, 1406-1410 Published Online November 2014 in SciRes. http://www.scirp.org/journal/jep http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jep.2014.514134 A Survey of Arsenic Level in Tube-Wells in Bam Province (Burkina Faso) Touridomon Issa Somé1, Abdoul Karim Sakira1, Alidou Kaboré1, Aissata Traoré2 1Laboratory of Toxicology, Environment and Health, Doctorate School of Health, University of Ouagadougou, Ouaga, Burkina Faso 2Plan Burkina, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso Email:
[email protected],
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[email protected] Received 2 September 2014; revised 26 September 2014; accepted 21 October 2014 Copyright © 2014 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Abstract Groundwater is a main source of water supply for populations in Burkina Faso where there is a serious problem for drinking water access. However, water quality has not been always followed regularly. Recent studies showed that more than 50% of drillings in Yatenga province (north of Burkina Faso) have an arsenic concentration above the recommended WHO requirement. Prelim- inaries studies conducted in Bam (Center North of Burkina Faso) showed high arsenic level in cer- tain localities. This work presents for the first time data on a large scale evaluation that had been performed in all the localities of Bam province in other to have a better assessment of contamina- tion scale. A total of 707 drilling water samples have been selected randomly in 9 communes and analysed for the arsenic level using atomic absorption spectrometry with hydride generation.