'Alarmingly high' levels of arsenic in Pakistan's ground water

[naveed]

This study says that arsenic in groundwater in Pakistan is far more widespread than previously thought

Up to 60 million people in Pakistan are at risk from the deadly chemical arsenic, according to a new analysis of water supplies.

The study looked at data from nearly 1,200 groundwater quality samples from across the country.The resulting risk map shows concentrations well above World Health Organization (WHO) safety guidelines across the Indus plain.

The research has been published in the journal, Science Advances.Arsenic is a semi-metallic element found all over the world in varying concentrations. Humans come into contact with it because it leaches into groundwater from rocks and sediments.

A map showing the concentrations of arsenic in the water along the Indus plainThe WHO says about 150 million people around the world rely on groundwater contaminated with arsenic.

Long-term exposure can lead to a variety of chronic health conditions, including skin disorders, cancers of the lung and bladder as well as cardiovascular issues.The WHO has established a level of 10 micrograms per litre as the permissible concentration in drinking water. In Pakistan, the government says that 50 micrograms per litre is acceptable.This new study shows that 50-60 million people living in the Indus valley,

which runs through much of eastern Pakistan, are drinking water which very likely exceeds their government's safe level.The scientists collected ground water samples, taken from wells going down into the Earth, at 1,200 sites throughout the country. The team then used statistical methods to construct a "hazard map" and to estimate the size of population exposed to the threat.

TASAWAR KHANAM : Scientists at work in the field collecting water samples

Lead author Dr Joel Podgorski from the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology told BBC News that the findings were "alarming".

"This is the first time we've been able to show the full extent of the problem in Pakistan. Because of the geology and the soil properties and based on all of the measurements we've taken, basically the whole Indus plain is at high risk of having high arsenic levels in the groundwater."The researchers say that one important cause of the problem is that the sediments that contain the arsenic are relatively young.So if an aquifer has developed since the end of the last ice age around 10,000 years ago, it's more likely to have higher levels of arsenic in the water than older, deeper aquifers where most of the chemical has leached away.The scientists also believe that irrigation for farming is making the situation worse.

The study found a strong correlation between high soil PH levels and arsenic concentrations."There is massive irrigation in the Indus valley, it's a very hot and dry climate," said Dr Podgorski."If you have a lot of water flooding the surface that is going to percolate down to the aquifer, that would be an easy way of bringing any released arsenic down to the groundwater."The number of people who are likely impacted in Pakistan, according to the study, far exceeds the 20 million affected in China. Some researchers, who welcomed the study, have reservations about the scale of the impact.For David Polya, professor of environmental chemistry at the University of Manchester, there is a "considerable amount of uncertainty in the new figures".

Testing individual wells in the Indus valley is the best way to get a grip on the problem, say scientists

"Even if the population at risk was only half that estimated, it would mean that the estimates of the number of people around the world impacted by such high arsenic hazard groundwaters would need to be substantially upwardly revised," he said."This reflects a trend over the the last few decades, where increasing numbers of people have been recognised to be exposed to high arsenic concentrations in their drinking water.

"As further detailed studies such as this are conducted in other areas, no doubt the number of people known to be exposed to this poison through drinking water will further increase."Other researchers in the field say that whatever the overall accuracy of the numbers, the study is bringing much-needed attention to an under-reported issue.

"This new study contributes information on the causes and extent of arsenic contamination that will be useful for Pakistan as well as for the broader water sector," said Dr Rick Johnston from the WHO."It points out the need for robust water quality surveillance and for either avoiding arsenic in drinking water by exploiting arsenic-free resources, or effectively removing arsenic from drinking water supplies."

The only way to get a definitive answer to the scale of exposure is to do more testing on the ground, says Dr Podgorski, the lead author."Ultimately, what our map shows is that this whole area should really be tested," he said."Some are fine, some are not, you need to go through every step to test each well."

Source BBC

 

[HamzaAfzal]

The clean drinking water is a basic necessity of life as the arsenic level in water is on high and it is dangerous for human health. It is the responsibility of government to provide clean drinking water to all the segments of society. There are so many Non-profit organizations in Pakistan working to provide all the basic amenities of life including clean drinking water.

 

[shassan655]

50 Million People in Pakistan Are at Risk of Arsenic Poisoning From Contaminated Groundwater


50 Million People in Pakistan Are at Risk of Arsenic Poisoning From Contaminated Groundwater

(ISLAMABAD) — Some 50 million people are at risk of arsenic poisoning from contaminated groundwater in Pakistan’s Indus Valley — far more than previously thought, according to a new study.

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 developed a map highlighting areas of likely contamination based on water quality data from nearly 1,200 groundwater pumps tested from 2013 to 2015, and accounting for geological factors including surface slope and soil contents. They determined some 88 million people were living in high-risk areas.

Given that about 60-70% of the population relies on groundwater, they calculated that roughly 50 million — maybe even 60 million — were potentially affected. That’s equal to at least a third of the 150 million already estimated by the World Health Organization to be drinking, cooking and farming with arsenic-laced water worldwide.

“This is an alarmingly high number, which demonstrates the urgent need to test all drinking water wells in the Indus Plain,” with hotspots around the densely populated cities of Lahore and Hyderabad, said the study’s lead author, Joel Podgorski, of the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, known as Eawag.
The findings were published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances.

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 neighboring India and Brahmaputra in Bangladesh also contain pockets of arsenic contamination.

Normally, that arsenic would stay in the ground. But in the last few decades, South Asian countries concerned with pathogen-infused surface water have been pumping enormous volumes of groundwater, causing the water tables to drop drastically and tapping into new water pockets tainted by the colorless, odorless toxin.

The WHO considers arsenic concentrations above 10 micrograms per liter to be dangerous. Pakistan’s guideline is five times that, and many of its wells test much higher.

Arsenic is naturally occurring and kills human cells — causing skin lesions, organ damage, heart disease and cancer. There is no cure for arsenic poisoning.

“This study is important because it draws attention to an overlooked — yet solvable — problem of vast magnitude affecting the health of millions of villagers,” said geochemist Alexander van Geen of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, who was not involved in the study. He said the patterns it identifies are broadly consistent with data he and other researchers have collected from some 10,000 well tests in the region.

One of those researchers, Abida Farooqui, assistant professor of environmental sciences at Islamabad’s Qaid-e-Azam University, said the new study’s sample size may be too small to draw clear conclusions.

“The study revealed very important and an emerging problem of arsenic in the country,” Farooqui said. But “only 1,193 samples have been used to predict the situation in the whole Indus Valley, which is unrealistic.”

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 neighborhood filtration site on Wednesday, resident Ali Hasan said the struggle was real.
“It’s the government’s job to provide us with clean drinking water, but everywhere we have to travel to find clean water,” Hasan said while filling a large plastic jug to take home to his neighborhood.

A survey submitted to Pakistan’s parliament last year suggested nearly 80% 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 Rodríguez-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.

For Pakistan, Bukhari said, the problem is now urgent. Her department is already working with the U.N. Children’s Fund to provide cheap anti-arsenic water filters to poor villagers in the worst-affected areas.

“We should immediately discourage the indiscriminate ground water exploitation,” she said, noting that even city-dwellers with municipal water access were digging tube wells “to have a lavish supply of water.”

But the country also needs to test countless tube wells and identify which have tapped into arsenic, possibly determining which depths might be safer, she said.

If researchers can find a depth at which “there is no arsenic, we can dig wells that stop before the water is contaminated,” Bukhari said

https://www.yahoo.com/news/50-million-people-pakistan-risk-052922924.html

 

[chandaa]

Re: 50 Million People in Pakistan Are at Risk of Arsenic Poisoning From Contaminated Groundwater

Who cares? Hamrey ghar agar saaf paani ki jagaa Gutter ka paani bi aaey tou mein phir bi Nawaz League ko he vote doon ga - Aik Phatwaari ka jawab.

 

[Kamran Stu]

Real Issue: Million in Pakistan Affected by Arsenic-Tainted Water Via Time

[h=1]Study: Million in Pakistan Affected by Arsenic-Tainted Water[/h] Kathy Gannon and Katy Daigle / AP

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(ISLAMABAD) — Some 50 million people are at risk of arsenic poisoning from contaminated groundwater in Pakistan's Indus Valley — far more than previously thought, according to a new study.
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 developed a map highlighting areas of likely contamination based on water quality data from nearly 1,200 groundwater pumps tested from 2013 to 2015, and accounting for geological factors including surface slope and soil contents. They determined some 88 million people were living in high-risk areas.
Given that about 60-70% of the population relies on groundwater, they calculated that roughly 50 million — maybe even 60 million — were potentially affected. That's equal to at least a third of the 150 million already estimated by the World Health Organization to be drinking, cooking and farming with arsenic-laced water worldwide.
"This is an alarmingly high number, which demonstrates the urgent need to test all drinking water wells in the Indus Plain," with hotspots around the densely populated cities of Lahore and Hyderabad, said the study's lead author, Joel Podgorski, of the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, known as Eawag.
The findings were published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances.
[h=2]Related[/h]




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 neighboring India and Brahmaputra in Bangladesh also contain pockets of arsenic contamination.
Normally, that arsenic would stay in the ground. But in the last few decades, South Asian countries concerned with pathogen-infused surface water have been pumping enormous volumes of groundwater, causing the water tables to drop drastically and tapping into new water pockets tainted by the colorless, odorless toxin.
The WHO considers arsenic concentrations above 10 micrograms per liter to be dangerous. Pakistan's guideline is five times that, and many of its wells test much higher.
Arsenic is naturally occurring and kills human cells — causing skin lesions, organ damage, heart disease and cancer. There is no cure for arsenic poisoning.
"This study is important because it draws attention to an overlooked — yet solvable — problem of vast magnitude affecting the health of millions of villagers," said geochemist Alexander van Geen of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, who was not involved in the study. He said the patterns it identifies are broadly consistent with data he and other researchers have collected from some 10,000 well tests in the region.
One of those researchers, Abida Farooqui, assistant professor of environmental sciences at Islamabad's Qaid-e-Azam University, said the new study's sample size may be too small to draw clear conclusions.
"The study revealed very important and an emerging problem of arsenic in the country," Farooqui said. But "only 1,193 samples have been used to predict the situation in the whole Indus Valley, which is unrealistic."
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 neighborhood filtration site on Wednesday, resident Ali Hasan said the struggle was real.
"It's the government's job to provide us with clean drinking water, but everywhere we have to travel to find clean water," Hasan said while filling a large plastic jug to take home to his neighborhood.
A survey submitted to Pakistan's parliament last year suggested nearly 80% 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 Rodr*guez-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.
For Pakistan, Bukhari said, the problem is now urgent. Her department is already working with the U.N. Children's Fund to provide cheap anti-arsenic water filters to poor villagers in the worst-affected areas.
"We should immediately discourage the indiscriminate ground water exploitation," she said, noting that even city-dwellers with municipal water access were digging tube wells "to have a lavish supply of water."
But the country also needs to test countless tube wells and identify which have tapped into arsenic, possibly determining which depths might be safer, she said.
If researchers can find a depth at which "there is no arsenic, we can dig wells that stop before the water is contaminated," Bukhari said.

Source: Time