MULTAN:By Salman Raza
Over the decades, the use of multiple chemicals in producing numerous goods, industrial effluent and use of pesticides have badly contaminated groundwater in different parts of South Punjab including Multan city.
Damaged underground sewerage systems like the breakage of years-old pipelines are also contaminating groundwater with heavy metals including arsenic particles into daily use water.
According to a recent Public Health Engineering (PHE) department analysis of water supplies, around 45 percent of Multan’s population is at risk with arsenic contamination showing higher level than the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended guidelines.
The WHO has established 10 micrograms per liter as the permissible concentration of arsenic in drinking water while the city is stated to have 50 micrograms per liter.
“Although 70% out of Multan’s total four million population have access to “Filtration Plants” drinking water yet there are other hundreds of thousands who either fail to reach these facilities or do not have one in their area,” said Nadeem Abbas, a Water Management Officer.
“This situation is worrisome and needs the early attention of authorities to save millions of rupees burden on citizens to get treated for water-borne diseases,” he said.
The city’s interior location like Khooni Burg consists of gates namely the Dehli gate, Haram gate, and Bohar gate along with rest of the populated areas like Rasheedabad and Suraj Miani towns are more prone to arsenic-mixed water.
Arsenic and fluoride are among the major inorganic contaminants mixing with water from both naturogenic dissolution of rocks and anthropogenic sources like industrial effluents Arsene is frequently used in the synthesis of alloys, wood preservatives, pesticides ingredients in the processing of textiles, pigments and leather, etc.
“Arsenic contamination in drinking water resulted in diseases like impaired nerve function, peptic diseases, cardiovascular, pulmonary diseases and gastroenteritis,” said Assistant Professor of Pathology at Nishtar hospital Dr. Abuzar Raza.
“If the level rises further, it may cause different deadly diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular problems and types of cancer,” he stated. “Moreover, early childhood exposure also has negative impacts on cerebral development that leads to early childhood deaths.”
Public Health Engineering and Rural Water Management run over 100 water filtration plants in the city in a joint venture while Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) is also operating around 100 tube wells. However, the agency has claimed a paucity of resources as one of the reasons to reach out to all residents.
“Around 80 percent of total 1400 kilometer long water pipelines were laid during the 1990s. However, the rustic and worn-out pipelines are replaced or repaired occasionally,” said a WASA official Hassan Bukhari.
He said the WASA would be starting more clean drinking water schemes from January next year. “As many as Rs one billion would be spent on these schemes to provide healthy drinking water to citizens. This project would be completed in two years.”
Some of the citizens also complain of delayed monitoring and evaluation of water quality with claims that sometimes testing is not conducted for four to five months.
However, Secretary Water Testing Laboratory Khalid Javed claims that the department endeavors utmost to ensure better water quality. “However, delay may occur in some cases due to shortage of staff but not to the extent claimed by citizens.”
He said, since health consciousness is a shared responsibility, therefore there is a dire need to raise awareness among the masses. “Although water testing laboratory offers free of cost water testing for common households, people least bother to avail this service.”
When contacted, Executive Engineer Water Supply WASA, Abudsslam rejected the arsenic contamination level revealed by the WHO. “WASA was efficiently managing the provision of clean drinking water to large areas of the city through underground water pipelines. I don’t agree with excerpts of (WHO) report revealing arsenic contamination to 50 micrograms per litre.”
He said the department conducts TPV (third-party valuation) of water every three-week to ensure its purity. “The arsenic level wasn’t static all-around rather it varies from place to place.”
He, however, said it might be higher than the permissible level at Jalalpur Pirwala, Shujabad, Khanewal and adjacent towns as compared to Multan but not to the extent the report had claimed.
The rapid expansion of population through unplanned colonies structures also aggravated the situation since the builders don’t pay heed to the underground sewer system. The water authority also couldn’t adopt alternative measures to revert the hazard on time.
Even the officials within the agency refute claims of the EXEN stating that detection of unseen particles in water like arsenic, lead, mercury or PCBs were not paid proper heed by the authorities.
“The decades-old underground water pipelines are rusty and damaged that result in outflow of sewage contaminating ground as well as the pipe water sometimes,” he claimed.
When many world nations are using Reverse Osmosis, ultrafiltration or microfiltration mechanisms to purify drinking water, we are still providing simply the groundwater for drinking knowing well that its quality had deteriorated massively in recent years.
Therefore, it is direly needed to ensure proper water purification mechanisms, especially in urban areas to save billions of rupees incurred every year to cure water-borne diseases.