TITLE OF COURSE: ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

WATER AVAILABILITY,
QUALITY & POLLUTION
IN
PAKISTAN
PREPARED BY: Syed Mazhar Imam
FOR THE STUDENTS OF
Second Semester FINAL YEAR, B.E (Chemical)
 Planet Mother
Earth is
the only
planet
where life
exists. Earth
 Planet
Earth is
where
we live.
EVERY THING THAT
SURROUNDS US IS:
 What’ s
happening to
the planet,
Earth?
It is heating up It is wounded

is
It is coughing SICK It is melting
Mother
Earth is
DYING
WHO is killing
The Earth?
and
HOW?
M A N
Man is killing the Earth by
POLLUTION
What is ?
Pollution happens when the
environment is
contaminated or dirtied by
waste, chemicals, gases and
other harmful substances.
There are four main forms
of pollution
Air pollution Land pollution

Pollution

Noise pollution Water pollution

Water Pollution
Water Resources of the world
 Water Resources of the world

Over the last century

• Human population has increased 3x

• Global water withdrawal has increased 7x

• Per capita water withdrawal has increased

4x
About one-sixth of the world’s people don't
have easy access to safe water

Most water resources are owned by

Government and are managed as publicly
owned resources
 Use of Water Resources in Pakistan
PAKISTAN

Industry 5% 2% Public
 Agriculture
 Industry 1
2
 Domestic 3

93% Agriculture
Principal source of drinking water
GROUND WATER
Most of the rural areas and
many major cities rely on
it, although some cities
such as Islamabad,
Karachi, Hyderabad etc,
get water from a number of
other sources.
About 80% of The Punjab has fresh
Groundwater
In Sindh, less than 30% of the
groundwater is fresh
In Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa, increasing abstraction has
resulted in wells now reaching into saline layers
Balochistan also has saline groundwater
Ground Water cycle
Flowing
artesian well

Precipitation
Evaporation and transpiration
Well requiring a pump
Evaporation
Confined
Recharge Area

Runoff

Aquifer Stream
Infiltration Water table
Lake
Infiltration
Unconfined aquifer

Confined aquifer
Less permeable material
such as clay
Confirming permeable rock layer
Problems Using Groundwater
Water Level Lowering
Depletion
SALTWATER INTRUSION is the movement of saline
water into fresh water aquifers
The drying up of wells

Groundwater in
the sub basin of
Quetta would be
exhausted by 2016
In Islamabad, the drop
has been 50 feet
between 1986 and 2001
In Lahore, the drop has been about 20
feet between 1993 and 2001.
Punjab has the best rural
water supply
The vast majority of the
rural population has Rural Water Supply in
either piped water or Pakistan
water from a hand
pump or motor
pump.
Only 7 % of the rural population depends
on a dug well or a river, canal or stream.
Sindh is considerably worse:
some 24% of the rural
population depend on these
sources
Situation
Situation in in Khyber
Khyber
Pukhtoonkhwa
Pukhtoonkhwa is is worse
worse
still
still 46%
46%
 In Balochistan, 72% of the rural
population depend on dug well or from
river/canal/stream.
Water Condition in Pakistan
Pakistan has decreased from 5,000 cubic meter (in 1951)
to 1000 cubic meter per Annum( in 2010)
 The situation could get worse in areas
where it is already below 1000m3 per
head
Per Capita Water Availability
Years Population Per Capita
(million) Availability (m3)
1951 34 5000
1961 46 3950
1971 65 2700
1981 84 2100
1991 115 1600
2000 148 1200
2013 207 850
2025 267 659
WATER AVAILABILITY IN PAKISTAN
 The water Shortage
The water shortage in the agriculture
sector is another serious issue.
29% for the year 2010 and 33%
for 2025.
WATER QUALITY IN PAKISTAN
WATER QUALITY IN PAKISTAN
Domestic and Industrial waste are discharged directly or
indirectly in fresh water

Only 3 waste treatment plants are present in Pakistan

Only 8% of urban wastewater is treated in municipal

treatment plants.

In Sindh 95% of shallow groundwater supplies are

bacteriological contaminated

In Punjab, approximately 36% of the population is exposed

Arsenic (10ppb)
Sources of water pollution

• Municipal Sewage
• Industrial Water Pollution
• Agriculture Water Pollution
Municipal Sewage
It has been
estimated that around
2,000 million gallons
of sewage is being
discharged to surface
water bodies every
day in Pakistan (Pak-
SCEA 2006)
NCS states that 40% of death
are related to water born diseases
 Drinking Water Supply Lines Conditions in Pakistan

Water is contaminated
with
• Lead
• PCBs Poly chlorinated Biphenyl's)
(

• Cyanides
• Mercury
• Hospital Waste
• Pharma Waste
Industrial Water Pollution
Most industries in the country are located in or
around major cities and are recognized as key
sources of increasing pollution in natural streams,
rivers, as well as the Arabian Sea to which the
toxic effluents are discharged
Major Industrial Contributors to Water Pollution
in Pakistan

Petrochemicals, Paper and

pulp, Food processing, Sugar,
Textile, Cement and fertilizer
produce more than 80% of the
total industrial effluents
 Sugarcane Based Industry

• A major cause of
industrial water pollution due
to discharge of wastewater
containing high pollutant
concentrations

• Several hundred thousand

tons of wastewater is
generated per day
Tanneries

It may take hundreds or

even thousands of years
for pollutants such as
toxic metals from the
tanneries to be flushed out
of a contaminated aquifer
In K.P, 80,000 m3 of industrial effluents
containing a very high level of pollutants are discharged every day
into the river Kabul
In Karachi, Sindh Industrial Trading Estate (SITE) and
Korangi Industrial and Trading Estate (KITE), two of
the biggest industrial estates in Pakistan, there is no
effluent treatment plant and the waste containing
hazardous materials, heavy metals, oil etc. is
discharged into rivers.
In Multan, a fertilizer factory discharges its waste untreated
to cultivated land causing death of livestock and increasing
health risk to humans. (WB-CWRAS Paper 8, 2005)
•In Lahore, only 3 out of some
100 industries using
hazardous chemicals treat
their wastewater.

•Biological Oxygen Demand

(BOD) levels in water sourses
receiving these wastes are as
high as 800mg/l and Mercury
levels over 5 mg/l
In Faisalabad, one of
the biggest industrial
cities, there is little
segregation of
domestic and
industrial wastes
Agriculture Water Pollution
According NWP, the irrigation network of Pakistan is the largest
infrastructural approximately $ 300 billion of investment, 25% to the
country's GDP. provides 90 % of food and fiber The remaining 10 % arid.
This includes runoff and leaching
Fertilizers
pesticide drift and volatilization
erosion and dust from cultivation,
animal manure
The study revealed that in Punjab, Sindh and
Balochistan and all drains were carrying saline
and sodic waters due to high values of Total
Dissolved Solids (TDS) and Residual Sodium
Carbonate (RSC) and all of them also had very
high values for Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD)
and Biological Oxygen Demand(BOD).
Source of contamination of Water
Pollution
 Point sources

 Nonpoint sources
Point and Non point

NONPOINT SOURCES

Rural homes

Urban streets Cropland

Animal feedlot

Suburban POINT
development SOURCES
Factory

Wastewater
treatment
plant
HEALTH ISSUES RELATED TO WATER
POLLUTION
As per USAID report, an estimated
250,000 child deaths occur each year
in Pakistan due to water-borne
disease.
The WHO reports that 25-30% of all
hospital admissions are connected to
water borne bacterial and parasitic
conditions, with 60% of infant deaths
caused by water infections.
Small rural areas in Sindh do not
receive adequately-treated water
Of course, major cities, like Karachi,
get contaminated water.
 Pollutant  Source/Cause  Effect

 Sewage that includes domestic

 Sewerage of rural and urban  Oxygen depletion Spread of
wastes, hospital wastes,
areas. diseases/ epidemics
excreta, etc.

 Minamata disease - causes

numbness of limbs, lips and
 Metals-Mercury  Industrial wastes tongue, blurred vision,
deafness and mental
derangement.

 Absorbed into blood and

affects PBCs, liver, kidney,
bone, brain and the peripheral
 Lead  Industrial wastes
nervous system. Lead
poisoning can even lead to
coma.

 Deposited in organs like the

kidney, pancreas, liver,
intestinal mucosa, etc.
 Cadmium  Cadmium industries, Fertilizers Cadmium poisoning causes
headache, vomiting, bronchial
pneumonia, kidney necrosis,
etc.

 Arsenic
 Agrochemicals like DDT
Wastes
Nitrates/Nitrogen
Trihalomethane(Trihalomethan
es are a group of organic
chemicals formed in water
when chlorine reacts with
natural organic matter (such as
humic acids from decaying
vegetation). Humic acids are
present in all natural water
used as sources of drinking
water)
 Arsenic poisoning causes
renal failure and death, It can
 Fertilizers cause nerve disorder, kidney
and liver disorders, muscular
atrophy, etc.
 Accumulates in the bodies of
fishes, birds, mammals
including man. Adversely
 Pesticides
affects the nervous system,
fertility. Causes thinning of egg
shells in birds.
Mining and Smelting Industries Damage Kidney
Pesticides Blue Baby Syndrome
cause cancers of colon, rectum
Decaying Plant Material
and bladder
PREVENTING AND REDUCING SURFACE WATER
POLLUTION
Solutions:
Nonpoint Sources Point Sources

 Reduce runoff  Pakistan’s Environmental

Protection Act
 Buffer zone  National Drinking
vegetation Water Policy

 Reduce soil erosion

Infiltration trenches, which are rock-filled trenches in
which storm water is stored in the voids of the stones, and
then slowly filters back into groundwater;
Downspout diversion programs (i.e., allowing domestic
gutters to discharge to lawns or other unpaved areas
instead of being connected to the sewers
Permeable or porous pavements for roads and parking lots
Swales (i.e., grass depressions that catch runoff from
impermeable surfaces and slowly filter it back into
groundwater)
Wide filter or buffer strips of natural vegetation: grass or
woodland, usually located between paved areas and the
watercourse to slow flows and remove pollutants
Infiltration basins that hold surface water, allowing it to
infiltrate the soil gradually; and retention ponds or
permanently wet ponds that retain surface runoff
The Buffer Zone is that strip
of vegetation located
between developed land and
a lake, stream
Function as filters by
reducing nitrogen from
agricultural runoff by 68%
Function to filter approx 80-
85% phosphate
Function to enhance
infiltration of surface runoff
Increased level of nitrogen
and phosphorus, along with
higher sediment loads, are
the leading contributors to
reduce water quality

Soil Erosion can be

controlled by using
management practices like
Conservation tillage,
residue management,
grassed waterways, terraces,
conservation buffers, crop
rotation and contour
farming
Pakistan Environmental Protection
Act (PEPA) describes the functions of
Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA)
PEPA advises EPA to “establish
standards for discharge and emission
of ambient water, coordinate
environmental policies and
programmes, nationally and
internationally, designate
laboratories for conducting tests and
analysis for monitoring,
measurement, examination,
investigation, research, inspection
and audits to prevent and control
pollution
It provides a framework for addressing the key issues and
challenges facing Pakistan in the provision of safe
drinking water to the people
Its targets include

 Toprovide safe drinking water to 93% of the

population in 2015
 To provide at least one hand pump for every
250 persons
 To establish water treatment plants in all
urban areas by the year 2015
 To ensure water quality standards
 Solutions

Water Pollution

• Prevent groundwater contamination

• Greatly reduce nonpoint runoff
• Reuse treated wastewater for irrigation
• Find substitutes for toxic pollutants
• Work with nature to treat sewage
• Practice four R's of resource use (refuse,
reduce, recycle, reuse)
• Reduce resource waste
• Reduce Soil Erosion
 Questions

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