Groundwater pollution endangers Faisalabad | The Express Tribune

FAISALABAD:

Population explosion, vehicle and industrial wastewater emissions in urban areas, and the use of pesticides and insecticides in rural areas are continually disrupting the balance of natural resources by polluting the air and groundwater.

Polluted water has a particularly negative impact on the health of the population and places a significant financial burden on the national economy.

Faisalabad residents are more at risk of this danger. The only way to dispose of industrial, domestic and even rainwater is through the sewerage system of the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA).

During the rainy season, the sewage system begins to overflow in low-lying areas and open spaces, causing the water to seep into the groundwater. This has serious consequences for the poor population groups who usually use sewage water as drinking water.

“About 80 percent of diseases in Faisalabad are waterborne and children are the worst affected due to groundwater contamination,” claimed Dr Muhammad Iqbal, former head of the pediatrics department at Ghulam Muhammadabad Hospital. “The water in Faisalabad is hard and contains more than the prescribed ratio of potassium, sodium and magnesium,” he added.

A study by the Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) found that 59% of drinking water sources in Faisalabad were not suitable for drinking as water supply largely depended on surface and groundwater.

“Arsenic pollution increases the risk of cancer and other diseases,” noted Waqar Hussain, an official at the PCRWR Water Quality Lab in Faisalabad. “The major sources of arsenic pollution are industrial waste disposal, smelting of minerals, burning of fossil fuels and application of arsenic compounds in products such as insecticides, herbicides, phosphate fertilizers, semiconductor industries and timber.”

Health experts also believe that aquatic life in Faisalabad is being severely affected by direct discharge of industrial waste into canals or drains, causing it to mix with groundwater.

Since the departments concerned cannot provide drinking water to the entire population, the majority are forced to consume the contaminated groundwater.

A local social activist, Abdullah Nisar Khan, said: “There is only one wastewater treatment plant in Achkera, a few kilometres from the Paharang drain. Water treated in this facility is healthy for irrigation, but after treatment it is thrown into the drain, where it mixes with polluted water again.”

He urged for the speedy completion of another plant to clean the Maddhoana drain of sewage. The activist also stressed on a ban on plastic bags that were clogging most of the city’s drains. “Since the government departments are failing to perform their duties, the civil society must come together to demand action against water pollution,” he said.

He also stressed the need for separate drainage systems for industrial wastewater, treatment plants and the use of treated water for irrigation.

“We can reduce our health budget by 50% by urgently providing people with drinking water,” he said.

According to WASA officials, 345 of the 360 ​​water treatment plants in different parts of the city are functioning to provide clean drinking water. The plants were installed by the government and NGOs on a public-private partnership basis and are now managed by a welfare trust.

A WASA spokesperson claimed that the agency was meeting the needs of 70% of the city’s population by supplying 88.5 million gallons of water daily, including 56 mgd through 29 tubewells from the Chiniot well field area, 20 mgd through 25 tubewells from the Jhang Branch canal, 8 mgd through eight tubewells from the Rakh Branch canal and 4.5 mgd from the Jhall Khannuana and Millat Town waterworks.

“We are not involved in water treatment plants as that was a project of Faisalabad Municipality,” he said.

The spokesperson indicated that work on the water treatment plant at the Maddhuana drainage canal has not yet started.

As for rural areas, statistics show that 345 water treatment plants in over 840 villages in the district are failing to meet the needs of the residents.