Аннотация
The problem of arsenic in drinking water, which causes a violation of human health, is revealed. The main ways of arsenic ingress from the lithosphere into drinking water are shown. In the earth's crust, arsenic is contained in rocky rocks, from where it under the influence of weathering processes passes into sedimentary rocks, alluvium and silts. When underground water passes through a section of the earth's crust containing arsenic in the form of its minerals, the water is saturated with arsenic. Chemical reactions of arsenic transition to easily soluble forms and its main compounds in natural waters are presented. The mechanism of arsenic migration in natural surface and underground waters is explained. In Bangladesh, about 60 million people use arsenic-contaminated groundwater as drinking water and are therefore at risk of poisoning. Detailed map of the world on the risk of arsenic contamination of natural fresh water. It is shown that in Kazakhstan there are numerous geogenic deposits and ore occurrences of arsenic, which naturally infect groundwater. The West Kalba ore belt, which is about 800 km long and 80-100 km wide, has been identified only within Eastern Kazakhstan, and its ore objects are represented by gold-arsenopyrite (with an arsenic content of up to 2-5 %) ores. In addition, Kazakhstan has a significant technogenic component of arsenic water pollution due to the influence of the mining industry: only in the dumps of the Ust-Kamenogorsk metallurgical plant, more than 300 thousand tons of arsenic mineral products have already accumulated, with an annual increase of 11 thousand tons. The method of disposal of such waste, as well as localization of arsenic from underground polluted waters on technogenic geochemical barriers, is described.