We hope this book will be valued as a synthesis of current knowledge
about arsenic contamination and the crisis it has caused, and about what
needs to be done to accelerate mitigation. We hope it will help to
disseminate information and spread realisation of the nature and scale of
the problem to a wider range of professionals and publics so that pressure
PREFACE xxiii
to act on these issues will grow. We also offer it as an example of the
practical value of geography in helping to tackle environmental and
development problems with multidisciplinary dimensions and regionally
differentiated consequences.