BERKELY, Calif. � Top West Bengal government officials and experts met with scientists from a cutting-edge research firm based here to explore the possibility of importing technology to treat water in vast areas of West Bengal where the groundwater is contaminated by arsenic.

"About six million people live in nine districts in West Bengal where the groundwater is contaminated by arsenic," said R.K. Tripathy, who is leading the five-member delegation from West Bengal. "We have to give tubewells for every 150 people.

Tripathy is principal secretary of the state�s Public Health Engineering Department, and supervises the implementation of water supply programs in the state.

He said his team was in the U.S. " to explore the possibilities of finding the companies which are manufacturing arsenic removal plants, which can be fitted to the tube wells and the bigger diameter wells in the arsenic-affected areas of West Bengal."

Berkeley city manager James Keene welcomed attendees to the seminar, which, in addition to the Indian delegation, included representatives from Berkeley-based Electrochemical Design Associates, a company which has developed an arsenic treatment device; representatives from Ghosh Research Associates, a Berkeley-based non-profit organization that provides pro bono environmental and ecological service; Harvard Prof. Richard Wilson, one of the leading authorities in arsenic contamination; and Alexander Patico, an officer with the U.S.-Asia Environmental Partnership program, a USAID-supported program which sponsored the trip.

In the beginning session, seminar participants briefly presented their views about the crisis of arsenic contamination. CalEPA scientist Rash Ghosh, from GRA, made an impassioned pleas for multilateral organizations and the Wester world to help out West Bengal and Bangladesh in this looming crisis. "Destruction of water is the beginning of the destruction of civilization," he said.

Later, Robert Clarke and Samaresh Mohanta from EDA made a presentation of the prototype they have developed for treating arsenic contaminated water.

Describeing the device developed by scientists at EDA, Clark and Mohanta pointed out its key benefits: It is extremely low cost compared to other devices, is easy to maintain, and has the inestimable advantage of screening out arsenic very selectively, so that the resulting screened material is of very low quantity.

Tripathy said he liked what he heard.

"To be very frank, we are really impressed," he t told India West. "this is one company which has done very well in finding out [a device] which is easy to regenerate and the disposal is not a problem. If they can bring out a prototype which can be fitted to the village tubewells I think we will welcome it."

The Indian team, in addition to Tripathy, included Prasanta Kumar Mitra, chief engineer of the state Public Healht Engineering Department; Arunava Jajumder, a professor at the All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health; S.P. Sinha Ray, with the Central Ground Water Aughtority, and Kamal Mazumdar with the Rajiv Gandhi Drinking Water Mission.

The trip was sponsored by US-AEP, which was started a few years ago by USAID "to solve environmental problems in that region of the world utilizing expertise and technologies from the U.S.," Patico told India-West. "The United States-Asia Environmental Partnership is so called because it is set up in a very cooperative, collaborative sort of mode," he said. "It involves not only USAID, but also in a large way the U.S. Department of Commerce through its foreign commercial service."