Pakistan Water Pollution: Causes, Effects and Solutions

This article discusses the causes, effects and solutions of water pollution in Pakistan. It covers the impact of industrial and municipal waste on the rivers, water quality, and the health risks associated with contaminated water. It also suggests solutions to improve water quality and reduce pollution.

Running head: PAKISTAN WATER POLLUTION
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Pakistan water pollution
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Introduction
Pakistan has a great variety of landscapes and diversified relief that may separate into
four key geographic zones: the Indus river plain, the northern highlands, the desert south of the
Sutlej River and the mountain ranges along the western border with Afghanistan. The country is
the sixth largest country globally in terms of tremendous quantity of natural resources, populace
dimensions and numerous ecological zones from the Karakoram Himalayas. The northern
highlands comprise parts of the Karakorum Range, Hindu Kush and the Himalayas (Khan,
Hussain, Saboor, Jamila & Kim, 2013).
The Hindu Kush hills and Himalayas are in the west, as the flood plains and its streams
lies in the east. The biomes are presented with natural assets that have economic growth of the
nation. The ranges which comprise large hilly landmass, have offered to uphold its flourishing
livestock business. The mangrove, riverine and mountainous, as well a valued source of forest
products, have offered essential environmental services, sheltered watersheds, and preserved soil
output. Also, the river Indus plains and the watered deserts have offered the breadbasket to the
nation as creative woodlands (Mahmood & Malik, 2014).
The nation has an agrarian economy that is hugely reliant on rivers for many purposes
ranging from the power generation to agriculture. According to projections, the Indus River
irrigates approximately14 million hectares out of 21 million hectare agricultural land (Akbar et
al., 2013). Over the decades, numerous quests on the River Indus have strained Pakistan’s water
resources. The republic's present water consumption is around 1,000 cubic meters (m3) per
individual and that places Pakistan in the class of 'high stress' nations (Murtaza et al., 2010). In
the light of an increasing populace, swift urbanization and augmented industrial development

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and prolonged eras of dearth, it has been projected that an extra 48 cubic kilometers of water is
needed to realize the rising demands of agronomy and the republic's economy.
All the key industrial towns of Pakistan with the exception of Karachi are positioned
along the rivers. The effluence by industrial and municipal sources has affected the Pakistan
Rivers of Pakistan to varying extents. The Jhelum and Indus streams are somewhat swayed by
the waste water releases bases. River Sutlej and Ravi are acutely impacted due to the existence of
large urban settlement and industrial zones along the rivers and very minimal river flows
(Murtaza et al., 2010).
Water quality has become a big challenge in Pakistan due to contamination from deposit,
saline, and insufficient sewage treatment substructure and industrial waste. The growing number
and scope of settlements in the area of water bodies is a main cause of severe pressure on the
water resources. The entire wastewater discharges in Pakistan are projected to be 7,590 million
cubic meters per annum (Manarvi & Ayub, 2013). Thirty percent of these discharges are from
the industries. The public and home discharges are more than half of the releases. It is projected
that both metropolitan and industrial expulsions will have doubled up by 2025 (Khan et al.,
2013). Currently merely 1 percent of city wastewater is treated in Pakistan. The rest is discarded
into ravines, streams and rivers. There is growth of carbon-based and biological contamination in
the national and estuarine waters adjacent to the municipal centres due to discarding of untreated
or incompletely treated domestic leftover. The waste from industries released into water bodies is
no less dangerous. Moreover, about ten novel industrial estates are at diverse stages of
expansion. The main industries situated in the urban industrial lands are pharmaceutical, steel,
leather tanning, ceramic, food industries, oil refineries, textile, chemicals both organic and

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inorganic and oil mills. The biggest concentrations are positioned in Karachi and Central Punjab
(Perveen, Samad, A. B. D. U. S., Nazif & Shah, 2012).
Water remains an important resource for sustained wellbeing of the Pakistan citizens. The
water accessibility in Pakistan is continuously reducing, both in total bulk of water and the per
capital water accessibility. The increasing competition and water shortages for many
applications of water have severely affected the water quality. A vast majority of citizen does not
access portable clean and safe drinking water. Water bases such as groundwater are pollute with
bacteriological from the agricultural, municipal and industrial waste throughout the state. In spite
of huge populace, water resourced advanced from 85% in 1990 to 92% in 2010. However, water
from these sources was not secure to drink (Murtaza et al., 2010). Drinking water quality is
worsening frequently due to biological pollution from human surplus, chemical contaminants
from industries and agrarian inputs. Supplied water also becomes polluted as pipes are placed
very near to sewerage lines and cause numerous severe water borne infections. It was established
that 45% of newborn deaths have been accredited to diarrhea and around 60% to total
communicable water borne illnesses in Pakistan (GOP and UNFCCC 2011). According to Study
of 2010-11, the key basis of drinking water was: 28% hand pump, 4% dug well, 32% tap water,
27% motor pump and 9% others. Pakistan’s 96% of city and 89% of rural area inhabitants have
access in water contamination in extensive description and 57% of municipal and 15% of rural
populace access houses connection water effluence (Hakim, Afaque, Javed, Kazmi & Nadeem,
2014).
In Pakistan, pollution of drinking water with municipal sewage and industrial waste
joined with the lack of water disinfection routines and quality monitoring at treatment plants is
the primary cause of the prevalence of waterborne ailments. Diarrheal level in Pakistan is the

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second highest among 31 Asian nations (Hakim et al., 2014). Though in the developed nations
typhoid fever has been virtually eradicated, in developing republics like Pakistan it is still a
frequent illness and a main cause of disease and death due to lack of sewage and water treatment
amenities. Lack of efficient control and prevention measure aid is worsening the conditions.
According to approximation 250,000 kid mortality happen annually in Pakistan due to the water-
borne infection. Insufficient quality of potable water is related with a host of diseases (Iqbal,
Taseer, Anwar, Qadir & Shahid, 2016).
There are alternate viewpoints on populace-ecology linkages. Environment and
population are conjoined in dynamic and complex linkages. The linkage between the ecology
and populace is mediated by a number of socioeconomic, cultural, political and growth variables
whose comparative variable significance depends significantly from one context to another
(UNEP, 2013). Over the last three to four decades, parts of biologists, environmentalists and
economists have been evaluating the role of populace in environmental dilapidation (Murtaza et
al., 2010).
A huge array of ecosystems happen in Pakistan, but, the natural zones of country has
even drastically changed by human activity that very few natural habitats stay behind. Up to
date, no system attempt has been accomplished to describe the ecological zones of Pakistan. It is
dreaded that the nation is encountering the world’s second highest rate of deforestation. This
devastation is leading to the wholesale tree, ground flora, shrubs, vertebrate and invertebrate
fauna disappearance they normally support. The forest habitat loss has an acute impact on
Pakistan’s biodiversity and has severe implications for the country’s natural and agro-
ecosystems. Unluckily, the suspension on timber picking in Pakistan after the 1992 floods has
not been very operative (GOP and UNFCCC (2011).

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Contamination is an escalating concern in the nation and heavy application of agro
chemical has been a key cause for reduction in the populace of important flora and fauna.
Marine effluence, specifically, from oil leakages has frequently polluted numerous sea and
estuaries. Untreated sewage is disposed into the Irrigation Rivers, system and streams around
large cities. The release of industrial effluents and sewage leakage into marine and aquatic
ecosystem is quickly advancing. The carbon-based load of sewage reduces oxygen intensities in
water and indirectly lessens the range of animal and plant life. The subsequent loss of fish and
pollution of probable drinking water has substantial economic and wellbeing impacts. Industrial
pollution is predominantly severe in the industrial centre of Karachi with a populace of over 12
million individuals. Around 80% of the entire wastewater remains unprocessed and is released
into the sea over sewers and rivers, mainly the Lyari and Malir (GOP and UNFCCC (2011).
Numerous streams and shoreline waters in the Karachi part display eutrophication due to high
levels of organic contamination.
To advance the water quality, industrial and sewerage toxic waste must be treated. Weak
implementation of the National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS), absence of cost
effective native knowledge and resource restraint are the main aspects behind small treatment of
wastewater (GOP and UNFCCC (2011). The most essential element is the disregards of
municipal specialists to address this subject. Water and Sanitation Agencies (WASAs) have
intended treatment plants for Rawalpindi, Lahore, Faisalabad and Multan with the help of Asian
Development Bank, but supporting is the main limitation (Perveen et al., 2012). Sewage
treatment and using treated water for farming could be a good choice for an agrarian state like
Pakistan. Another limitation is the non-availability of cost effective contamination regulation
technologies. Moreover, little work has been completed in Pakistan to evaluate the assimilative

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capability of natural watercourses partially due to technical and financial, and to a large scope
due to misconception partly due to financial and technical constraints. It is vital to note that in
order to offer safe drinking water to folks; the administration has constructed hundreds of local
water decontamination plants.

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