Islamabad: Some 60 million people are at risk of arsenic poisoning from contaminated groundwater in Pakistan, reveals a new study.
The “alarmingly high” level of arsenic contamination was found in groundwater beneath the Indus Plain in Pakistan, according to the study published in the US journal Science Advance.
The researchers examined groundwater samples collected from nearly 1,200 sites from across Pakistan and developed a ‘hazard map’ which revealed that approximately 50 to 60 million people might use water that contains more than 50 micrograms per litre of arsenic, five times the WHO guideline.
Pakistan is aware of the growing problem, with arsenic levels rising in some areas as people increasingly and indiscriminately draw from the country’s underground aquifers, said Lubna Bukhari, who heads the government’s Council for Research in Water Resources.
“It’s a real concern,” she said. “Because of lack of rules and regulations, people have exploited the groundwater brutally, and it is driving up arsenic levels.”
The authors of the study determined some 88 million people were living in high-risk areas.
“This is an alarmingly high number, which demonstrates the urgent need to test all drinking water wells in the Indus Plain,” with hot spots around the populated cities of Lahore and Hyderabad, Joel Podgorski, the lead author and environmental scientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, said.
Highlighting the arsenic water poison threat in Pakistan, the study authors call for immediate measures including emergency solutions, awareness raising, water treatment, finding alternative resources of drinking water and evaluating options for removing arsenic.
Pakistan is long aware of the arsenic issue but it is yet to take measures, says Islamabad-based water expert, Imran Khalid. “Water monitoring is the key to ensure public safety,” Khalid told Gulf News. “Pakistan must identify all of its water sources and test the drinking water on an urgent basis.”
No access to clean water and infrequent government water supply makes the problem worse for Pakistan’s both urban and rural population. “Lack of water supply from government has forced even city-dwellers to dig up their own wells and rely on bottled water for drinking” Khalid describes.
The situation is not much different even in the capital city. “It’s the government’s job to provide us with clean drinking water, but we spend so much money and time on clean water even in the capital city,” complains a resident of Islamabad, Adnan Ahmed.
Arsenic is one of the most common inorganic contaminants found in drinking water worldwide. Normally, arsenic stays in the ground but in last few decades, South Asian countries have been pumping enormous volumes of groundwater which is causing the problem. If consumed over long periods, even low concentrations, it can cause skin disorders, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and neurodevelopmental delays.
“This toxic substance is also found in some foods, especially rice,” says Khubaib Abuzar, Assistant Professor at Bahria University Islamabad.
Talking to Gulf News, Abuzar said that “Pakistan currently uses three arsenic mitigation technologies namely, Clay Pitcher Arsenic Removal Filter, Gravity Flow Arsenic Removal Cartridge Filter and Arsenic Removal Cartridge Filter.”
The study authors hope that the research will draw the attention of Pakistani authorities to the arsenic threat in Pakistan and motivate them to test water contamination.
“It’s a reminder that arsenic remains a serious public health threat in drinking water,” says Richard Johnston, a public health engineer at WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, who was not involved in the research.
A survey submitted to Pakistan’s parliament last year suggested nearly 80 per cent of water sources in 2,807 villages across 24 districts were contaminated with bacteria or other pollutants, to levels that were unsafe to drink.
The high-risk area mapped out in the study broadly covers the middle and lower reaches of the Indus River and its tributaries, before they empty into the Arabian Sea.
Scientists had expected this area might be affected. Similar geographical areas along the Ganges River in neighbouring India and Brahmaputra in Bangladesh also contain pockets of arsenic contamination.
In any case, no map can tell villagers whether a specific well is contaminated. Arsenic concentration varies widely from pump to pump, and the only way to know for certain is to test each one.
Shallow wells are less likely to be tainted. Deeper ones, such as those run by the government’s Drinking Water Filtration sites, may be more at risk.
This makes the problem especially acute for thousands of city-dwellers who have no access to clean water and rely on what the government supplies. At one Islamabad neighbourhood filtration site on Wednesday, resident Ali Hasan said the struggle was real.
A survey submitted to Pakistan’s parliament last year suggested nearly 80 per cent of water sources in 2,807 villages across 24 districts were contaminated with bacteria or other pollutants, to levels that were unsafe to drink.
Now, “the presence of arsenic in drinking water is becoming a widespread health problem,” said Luis Rodrmguez-Lado, a chemist with the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain who was not involved in the study. Yet “there is a general lack of information” about which areas in Asia are most at risk.
— With inputs from AP
