Pakistan Water Pollution: Causes, Effects and Solutions

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