Risk assessment of the negative impact of consuming water with high arsenic concentrations on public health in the Republic of Dagestan

Abstract

The consumption of contaminated water by the population is a serious issue that has long been the focus of attention of hygienists and ecologists, and has acquired social significance not only in individual regions, but also on a national scale. The extraction, processing, filtration, and logistics component of clean high-quality water is a priority, as this factor has the greatest impact on a person’s health and ability to work. On the territory of the Republic of Dagestan, there is the largest underground water storage, the Terek-Kuma Artesian Basin (TKB) (18.9 thousand km²), which occupies the northern part of the region and the Caspian Sea drainage basin of small rivers in the southern foothills, which is 37.5 % of the total area of the Republic of Dagestan. The storage is actively used by the local population for household and drinking purposes and supplies the largest populated areas of the Republic. More than 292,000 thousand people live in the TKB zone, of whom about 58,000 thousand are children. The hydrochemistry of the underground mineral waters of the TKBis largely determined by the structural and tectonic zoning of Dagestan, therefore the waters in different parts of the basin differ significantly in composition. Today, there is a problem of the formation of an unfavorable water factor due to the presence of increased concentrations of arsenic in the composition of TKB water. Our research work is aimed at determining the impact of this factor on public health.