Drinking Water Contaminants in Pakistan

drinking water contaminants in Pakistan
 In 2005, Ikram Hoti of Daily The News reported in his article ‘Water For All’ to benefit people.
In a report released in February 2007, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said 20-40 percent of “people in
hospitals [in Pakistan] are suffering from water-borne diseases - gastroenteritis, typhoid, cholera, dysentery… and
other serious diseases”. The report said every third Pakistani “drinks unsafe water”.
high arsenic levels in major cities in the Punjab, including Lahore and Faisalabad,
excessive fluoride in the ground water.
leaching of pesticides and industrial effluent into the ground water is poisoning sources.
bacterial and chemical contamination of ground water
According to the WWF, 250,000 child deaths each year are a result of water-borne diseases.
Deaths due to gastroenteritis, acute diarrhoea or other water-borne illnesses rise each year during the summer, as
water consumption increases, scarcity worsens and rains contribute to flooded sewage channels which often flow into
clean water supplies.
Gastroenteritis
In its 2006-2007 Economic Survey the government of Pakistan said only “66 percent of the people in Pakistan have
access to clean water”. The growing scarcity of water and contamination of existing sources was a major problem, it
said.
Per capita water availability in Pakistan has slumped from 5,000 cubic metres (cu. m.) in 1951 to 1,100 cu. m. The
World Bank defines “water-stressed” as those having 1,000 cu. m. of less.
Drinking Water Quality Status and Contamination in Pakistan

BioMed Research International
Volume 2017 (2017), Article ID 7908183, 18 pages
https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/7908183
M. K. Dauddrinking water quality status of different areas of Pakistan by taking into account the physicochemical
properties of drinking water as well as the presence of various pathogenic microorganisms.
About 20% of the whole population of Pakistan has access to safe drinking water. The remaining 80% of population is
forced to use unsafe drinking water due to the scarcity of safe and healthy drinking water sources. The primary source of
contamination is sewerage (fecal) which is extensively discharged into drinking water system supplies. Secondary source
of pollution is the disposal of toxic chemicals from industrial effluents, pesticides, and fertilizers from agriculture sources
into the water bodies. Anthropogenic activities cause waterborne diseases that constitute about 80% of all diseases and are
responsible for 33% of deaths.
There is immediate need to take protective measures and treatment technologies to overcome unhygienic condition of
drinking water supplies in different areas of Pakistan.
In Pakistan, about 50% of diseases and 40% of deaths occur due to poor drinking water quality reported in community
health studiesi.
This situation is intensifying day by day due to the fast population growth which ultimately results in poor management of
water qualityii. It is estimated that, in Pakistan, 30% of all diseases and 40% of all deaths are due to poor water qualityiii.
Diarrhea, a waterborne disease, is reported as the leading cause of death in infants and children in Pakistan while every
fifth citizen suffers from illness and disease caused by the polluted wateriv.
In Pakistan, the main reasons of waterborne diseases in drinking water are the addition of municipal sewage and industrial
wastewater at different points of the water distribution network as well as lack of water disinfection and water quality
monitoring at treatment plants.
Pakistan National Conservation Strategyv reported that water-related diseases represent 40% of the communicable
diseases. In Pakistan, waterborne diseases are typhoid, giardiasis, intestinal worms, diarrhea, cryptosporidium infections,
and gastroenteritis. Infant deaths caused by water-related diarrhea are 60% in Pakistan according to International Union on
Conservation of Nature (IUCN) report, which is the highest ratio in Asia.
Diseases such as cholera, typhoid, dysentery, hepatitis, giardiasis, and cryptosporidiosis and guinea worm infections
represent about 80% (including diseases due to sanitation problem) of all diseases and are responsible for 33% of deaths vi.
The surface water quality is dropping rapidly due to the addition of raw municipal and industrial effluents and agriculture
runoff into water resourcesvii.
Most of the rivers are extended and diluted and do not endure aquatic life. It is clear that these water bodies are fecally
contaminated and need proper processing to free them from contaminants for human use.
In Pakistan, four major cities have been using surface water; these are Islamabad, Karachi, Rawalpindi, and Hyderabad.
About 70% of water for drinking purposes comes from aquifers. viii
The drinking water distribution in urban areas does not meet the WHO standards ix. The main reason of microbial
contamination is due to the intermixing of sewer lines with drinking water supply lines. In most of the rural areas of
Pakistan, surface water is used for drinking after slow sand filtration and chlorination is not done at filtration stations. In
most rural areas, no pretreatment facilities are available for filtration of water. All this inadequacy is due to microbial
contamination and poor water quality. Hand pumps and wells are not safe from surface runoff and flooding x.
The most serious pollutants in terms of human health worldwide are pathogenic organisms. Altogether, at least 25 million
deaths each year occur due to these water-related diseases, including nearly two-thirds of the deaths of children under five
years of age. The main and major source of biological agents is unprocessed and unconventional treatment of human
wastexi. The highest infant mortality rate (12.6%) and fertility rate (7%) reflect the poor health status of Pakistan. The bare
hospital information indicates that most of the treated diseases are due to fecal contamination. About 25% of patients
treated at hospitals, private clinics, or healthcare centers are suffering from diarrhea including children and adults xii,xiii
The Area-Wide Optimization Program (AWOP) provides tools and approaches for drinking water systems to
meet water quality optimization goals and provide an increased – and sustainable – level of public health
protection to their consumersxiv.
AWOP can also be utilized to provide compliance assistance through optimization – often directed towards
small- and medium-sized systems.
AWOP is a cost-effective approach to:
 Increasing public health protection

 Proactively achieving regulatory compliance
 Improving treatment plant performance
 Maintaining distribution system water quality
The success of AWOP is attributed to three key components:

 Status - Enhanced surveillance of PWS performance, which helps states determine the relative need of their
systems (based on water quality and anticipated public health risk) and target their compliance assistance
efforts to those most in need.
 Targeted Performance Improvement - Targeting activities for improving drinking water quality to “optimum”
levels that exceed regulatory requirements; this training supports transfer of water treatment skills to water
system operators and sustained improvements in drinking water quality.
 Maintenance - Ongoing improvement of AWOP activities to sustain and enhance the program through
collaboration with partner states in the AWOP network and integration of optimization approaches into other
state drinking water programs.
Improved Treatment Plant Performance and Public Health Protection
 Long-term, sustainable, approach

 Enhanced capability of water system operators
 Data-based, results-driven program
 Treatment Plant Performance Trends
i
R. Chhatwal, Dictionary of Environmental Chemistry, Publication, New Delhi, India, 1990.
G. H. Huang and J. Xia, “Barriers to sustainable water-quality management,” Journal of Environmental Management,
ii
vol. 61, no. 1, pp. 1–23, 2001.

iii
“C. R. P., Country Report, Pakistan, Global Water Partnership, Draft South Asia - Water Vision,” vol. 2025, 2000.
iv
M. A. Kahlown, M. A. Tahir, H. Rasheed, and K. P. Bhatti, “Water quality status, national water quality monitoring
programme,” Fourth Technical Report PCRWR 5, 2006.
v
P. J. Chilton et al., “Pakistan water quality mapping and management project,” Pakistan Integrated Household Survey
(PIHS) Islamabad, Federal Bureau of Statistics, Government of Pakistan, 2000.
vi
1. M. A. Tahir, M. A. Bhatti, and A. Majeed, Survey of Drinking Water Quality in the Rural Areas of Rawalpindi District,
Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources, Islamabad, pp. 35–39, 1994.
P. J. Chilton, “Pakistan water quality mapping and management project,” Scoping Study-Draft Final Report WELL Task
vii
568, Water, Engineering and Development Centre, Loughborough University and London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine, Loughborough, UK, 2001.
viii
1. M. A. Tahir, B. A. Chandio, M. Abdullah, and A. Rashid, “Drinking water quality monitoring in the rural areas of Rawalpindi,”
in Proceedings of the National Workshop on Quality of Drinking Water, pp. 35–39, Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources,
Islamabad, Pakistan, 1998.
ix
1. WHO, Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality, vol. 2, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, 1996.
x
1. S. Shuja and M. Jaffar, “Drinking water quality guideline values, chemical and physical aspects,” in Proceedings of the
National Workshop on Quality of Drinking Water, vol. 8, pp. 25–28, Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources &
Chemical Society of Pakistan, Islamabad, Pakistan, 1998.
xi
1. T. A. Howell, “Enhancing water use efficiency in irrigated agriculture,” Agronomy Journal, vol. 93, no. 2, pp. 281–289,
2001.
xii
K. M. A. Karim, M. A. Khattak, and R. A. Shah, “Pollution studies of Kabul River and Kheshki Lake,” International Journal of Engineering
and Applied Sciences, vol. 2, pp. 20–24, 1985.
M. Aslam and M. Ahmed, “An inquiry into the incidence and prevalence of water borne diseases: a case history of
xiii
Faisalabad,” Journal of Animaland Plant Sciences, vol. 3, p. 101, 1993.

xiv
https://www.epa.gov/dwstandardsregulations/optimization-program-drinking-water-systems

Drinking Water Contaminants in Pakistan

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drinking water contaminants in Pakistan

excessive fluoride in the ground water.

bacterial and chemical contamination of ground water

Drinking Water Quality Status and Contamination in Pakistan

AWOP is a cost-effective approach to:

 Increasing public health protection

The success of AWOP is attributed to three key components:

Improved Treatment Plant Performance and Public Health Protection

 Long-term, sustainable, approach

vol. 61, no. 1, pp. 1–23, 2001.

Faisalabad,” Journal of Animaland Plant Sciences, vol. 3, p. 101, 1993.

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