Arsenic Contamination in Ground Water Sources of District Matiari, Sindh

Transcription

1 Arsenic Contamination in Ground Water Sources of District Matiari, Sindh A.A. Uqaili *, A. H. Mughal, B. K. Maheshwari Liaquat University of Medical & Health Sciences, Jamshoro, Sindh, Pakistan *Corresponding Author Abstract: The presence of arsenic (As) has been reported across the globe in drinking water sources, Asia being the most significantly affected area for arsenic contamination around the world. In Asia around 100 million people are at risk of arsenic contaminated water sources and more than 700,000 cases have been reported for arsenic related diseases. Many research studies have been conducted for arsenic contamination, furthermore many studies are being carried out but still there is significant lack of knowledge about the prevalence and impact of arsenic and its epidemiology in under developed countries like Pakistan. The focus of this study is on the rural areas of Sindh using ground water as major source of drinking water. In Pakistan groundwater arsenic concentration has reached up to 1100 μg/l compared with WHO limits of 10μg/L internationally and 50μg/L for Pakistan. In the province of Sindh, around 36% of the population is exposed to arsenic contamination above WHO limits. Therefore, keeping in view the catastrophic situation, a study on arsenic prevalence in the district of matiari has been conducted to identify presence of arsenic in ground water. 85 water samples were taken from district matiari from hand pumps and boring and did field analysis for salinity and total dissolved salts (TDS). Further, the samples were brought in water testing and surveillance laboratory, LUMHS, Jamshoro where samples were tested for turbidity and arsenic. Arsenic presence was tested by Merck arsenic kit for mg/l. The concentration for arsenic was estimated by visual comparison of the reaction zone of analytical test strip with the color scale. From the total of 85 samples, 60 samples are positive for arsenic, and among those 22 samples are positive above WHO criteria for Pakistan (0.05mg/L or50μg/l). This research is part of the efforts taken to evolve and develop a community based awareness of arsenic hazards and sustainable arsenic mitigation system by establishing spatial and temporal prevalence of arsenic in the study area. Keywords: Arsenic, ground water, Matiari, Sindh 1. Introduction Water is the most important and basic necessity for the human life. Without water life can t exist and as the population of the world is increasing the supply of safe and healthy water has become a great concern. This is the important debate for both policy makers and international organizations dealing with the subject of water shortage and safe water supply[1]. Among the safety and quality of water, arsenic has been one of the important components in contamination of drinking water specifically in the south East Asian region. Considerable literature has been published in recent years on the presence of arsenic in groundwater being utilized by humans around the globe and particularly in Asia. Arsenic has been identified in the underground water sources of south East Asian countries and most prominently in Bangladesh, along with India, Pakistan and Nepal. In this research our main focus is on Pakistan. The main source of drinking water in Pakistan is ground water. Majority of people use the water without any treatment or filtration so it gives rise to a number of water based diseases. Arsenic is a naturally occurring element and widely distributed in earth crust in the form of inorganic arsenic compounds [2]. The consumption of contaminated water over long periods of time is the primary route of human exposure to arsenic. Though a lot of research has been carried out still there is dearth of knowledge on the presence and distribution of arsenic in water. The presence of arsenic in water poses many health hazards. Among them the common effects are skin lesions, skin cancer, itching, night blindness, lung cancer, renal cancer, bladder cancer, colonic cancer, peripheral neuro-pathology and vascular pathology (Blackfoot disease). Arsenic is an environmental contaminant that imposes a high risk of morbidity and mortality. There may be many areas in Pakistan that are not tested yet and may yield high concentrations of arsenic. This particular study was motivated by previous research studies conducted in rural areas of Punjab and Sindh and aims at evaluating arsenic concentration determining the spatial distribution of this contaminant in Matiari district and ultimately gauging the incidence risk in the environment of local community.

2 Figure 1 Countries affected on the current global scenario on arsenic contamination emphasizing on Asia [3] Many studies have been conducted worldwide as arsenic has become a very important aspect of environment and community based research. Arsenic has been found as underground naturally occurring substance contaminating drinking water sources and giving rise to mass poisoning, as arsenic is still undetected in majority of areas and proper steps are needed to free the water of arsenic. Among the research being carried out, Asia is the most significantly affected area, and in particular, south East Asia. Among the studies conducted around the globe, maximum work is done over Bangladesh as arsenic is considered to be at very high and alarming levels for both health and environmental aspects. Contamination of drinking-water by arsenic in Bangladesh reported more than 50% population of Bangladesh using contaminated water and out of 2022 samples around 35% are more than 50 μg/l and 8.4% samples are alarmingly high at around 300 μg/l [4]. The Concentrations of Arsenic and Other Toxic Elements in Bangladesh s Drinking water took samples from 112 tube wells of Bangladesh and around 50% samples have arsenic concentrations above the WHO guidelines, along with arsenic 30 more contents were tested and most of them exceeding the normal WHO criteria [5]. Magnitude of Arsenic Toxicity in Tube-well Drinking Water in Bangladesh and Its Adverse Effects on Human Health Including Cancer reported that in Bangladesh 59 districts out of 64 have been already affected by arsenic in underground drinking water, where this particular source of drinking water is the main source for 97 percent of the rural people [6]. 20% population of Punjab is exposed to arsenic contamination of 10 μg/l and 3% population above 50 μg/l and 36% and 16% population of Sindh is exposed to 10 μg/l and 50 μg/l of arsenic respectively [7]. Groundwater arsenic contamination a multi directional emerging threat to water scarce areas of Pakistan reported that in the province of Sindh, groundwater 260

3 Arsenic Contamination in Ground Water Sources of District Matiari, Sindh arsenic concentration has reached up to 1100 μg/l against WHO limits of 10 μg/l. in district Rahim Yar Khan and it was observed that out of samples, 9644 samples were within the safer limits <10 μg/l (49.95%) and the rest of 9663 samples (50.05%) were found with varying arsenic concentration from 20 μg/l to 500μg/l [8]. Arsenic contamination in underground water of Matiari and Khairpur districts Sindh reported 37% samples positive for 50 or >50 μg/l of arsenic and 15% samples positive for very high level of 250 μg/l of arsenic [2]. In the present study samples have been collected from district matiari of Pakistan.District Matiari consists of three talukas, Matiari, Hala, and Saeedabad. It is connected to district Jamshoro in the west, Nawabshah in north, Sanghar in the east and Hyderabad in south. In the present work, we have sampled UC Matiari, UC Hala, UC Bhit Shah, UC Nasarpur, and UC Faqir Nuthiani of district Matiari [3] 2. Materials and Method 54 water samples from Taluka Matiari and 21 samples from taluka Hala were collected from hand pumps, and motor pumps. Water samples were collected from each source after allowing water to flow for 5 min. Water samples were being collected in clean 0.25L polystyrene bottles which were subjected to 3 times rinsing before taking the water for sampling. Field analysis was carried out for the conductivity, TDS, salinity and temperature by the Senso direct con 200 conductivity meter. Arsenic was measured in LUMHS Water testing and surveillance Laboratory with Merck Arsenic Kit for mg/l [9]. This test generates arsenic hydride which reacts with the mercury bromide present in the analytical strip to form a yellow brown mixed arsenic mercury halogenide. The concentration of arsenic was measured by visual comparison of the reaction zone of the analytical test strip with scales of fields of color. 3. Result and discussion District Matiari includes three talukas: Matiari, Hala, and Saeedabad. In the present working, Matiari and Hala talukas were sampled. In these areas mostly ground water as boring through hand pump or motor pump is used for drinking. This was the base of collecting samples from these areas for the detection of arsenic. The release of Arsenic may be correlated to one of the three most established theories: Application of phosphate fertilizers causing release of Arsenic due to presence of Phosphate. Desorption of Arsenic due to reductive Dissolution of metal oxy-hydroxides; Oxidation of pyrite. The area where this research was conducted, rampant use of pesticides and fertilizers is being carried out on agricultural fields particularly on cotton and sugarcane crops with phosphate fertilizers being the most 261 extensively used. In many studies, it was found that elevated arsenic concentrations in groundwater are due to application of phosphate fertilizers (Campos, V., 2002, Davenport, J.R. & Peryea, F.J. 1991). PCRWR conducted a water quality survey in the study area, revealing higher PO4 concentration in the study area (water quality status in Pakistan, 2003). Therefore preferential adsorption of phosphate on sediments is also considered a chief factor for release of arsenic. The total number of samples collected from district Matiari were 85; 39 from UC Matiari, 19 from Bhit Shah, 12 from Nasarpur, 11 from Hala and 4 from UC Faqir Nuhthiani (fig:2), Figure 2 distribution of samples from district Matiari The samples were taken from ground water boring through hand pumps and motor pumps. 40 samples were taken from motor pumps and 45 from hand pumps from the above mentioned areas of the district. The normal range of arsenic for under developed countries given by WHO is (0.05mg/L or50μg/l) and internationally in developed countries it is (0.01mg/L or10μg/l). From these 85 samples 60 samples were found to be positive for arsenic contamination fig 1.1, out of these 60 samples 22 samples were above WHO limits for Pakistan (0.05mg/L or 50 μg/l) for arsenic as show in table.1 & fig 1.2, 18 samples were positive at international limits of (0.01mg/L or 10 μg/l) of arsenic and 20 were positive but below WHO criteria for arsenic at the level of (0.005mg/L or 5 μg/l) of arsenic and were tested in the water testing and surveillance lab LUMHS Jamshoro. These samples along with arsenic were tested for turbidity, color, salinity, and total dissolved salts (TDS). Figure 3 arsenic concentration from total no of samples

4 Table 1 (samples showing arsenic concentration 0.05mg/L or above) S. Sampling Area Arsenic mg/l 5 UC Matiari Kacho UC Matiari Kacho UC Matiari Memon colony Pir Noor Shah Colony; Matiari Pir Noor Shah Colony; Matiari Matiari Stop Govt. School; Matiari Stop Noor Shah Colony; Matiari Noor Shah Colony; Matiari NasarPur NasarPur NasarPur NasarPur NasarPur NasarPur NasarPur NasarPur NasarPur New Hala UC I Hala Talabulmola colony hala UC I Hala 0.05 The acceptable WHO range for turbidity is 1-5 NTU, while in the samples which we collected, the range extended from 0 NTU to 74 NTU. Total of 5 samples were found to be above the WHO criteria fig 1.4. Figure 6 Turbidity above WHO criteria Normal TDS limits set by WHO are mg/l but values of TDS found in collected samples ranged from 358 to With 49 samples out of 85 having TDS above the WHO criteria (fig1.5). Figure 4. Arsenic above WHO limits for Pakistan Among the 45 samples of hand pump, 26 are positive for arsenic and 10 are above WHO criteria for Pakistan (0.05mg/L). Similarly from 40 samples of motor pump 34 were positive for arsenic and 12 were above WHO limits of 0.05mg/L as shown in table.2 and fig 1.3. Table.2 arsenic detection among water sources Total samples Arsenic positive Hand pump Motor pump Arsenic 0.05mg/L or above Figure 7 Samples above normal TDS level 4. Conclusion: This research is part of the efforts taken to evolve and develop a community based awareness of arsenic hazards and sustainable arsenic mitigation system by establishing spatial and temporal prevalence of arsenic in the study area. From the data collected and analyzed, the samples collected from district Matiari have given alarmingly high concentration of arsenic in the drinking water ranging from mg/L. And it shows that this water is very unsafe for human consumption and efforts should be taken to decrease it, provide alternate source and educate the community. Figure 5 Arsenic among water sources 262 REFERENCES [1] Paoloni, J. D., Sequeira, M. E., Esposito, M. E., Fiorentino, C. E., & del, C. B. M. Arsenic in water resources of the southern pampa plains, argentina. J Environ Public Health, (2009). 2009: doi: /2009/ [2] Arain, G. M., Aslam, M., & Majidano, S. A. Arsenic contamination of underground water in district matiari and khairpur. jour.chem.soc.pak, (2007). 25(5). [3] Sengupta, M. K., Mukherjee, A., Hossain, M. A., Ahamed, S., Rahman, M. M., Lodh, D., et al. Groundwater arsenic contamination in the ganga-padma-meghna-brahmaputra plain of

5 india and bangladesh. Arch Environ Health, (2003). 58(11): doi: /AEOH [4] Smith, A. H., Lingas, E. O., & Rahman, M. Contamination of drinking-water by arsenic in bangladesh: A public health emergency. [Review]. Bull World Health Organ, (2000). 78(9): [5] Frisbie, S. H., Ortega, R., Maynard, D. M., & Sarkar, B. The concentrations of arsenic and other toxic elements in bangladesh's drinking water. [Research Paper]. Environ Health Perspect, (2002). 110(11): [6] Khan, M. M., Sakauchi, F., Sonoda, T., Washio, M., & Mori, M. Magnitude of arsenic toxicity in tube-well drinking water in bangladesh and its adverse effects on human health including cancer: Evidence from a review of the literature. [Review]. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev, (2003). 4(1): [7] Ahmed, T., Kahlown, M. A., Tahir, A., & Rashid, H. Peoplecentred approaches to water and environmental sanitation: Proceedings of the 30th wedc conference, lao national cultural hall, vientiane, lao pdr, october In 30th WED international conference, viantiane:2004, 662. [8] Haque, I. U., Nabi, D., Baig, M. A., & Hayat, W. Groundwater arsenic contamination a multi directional emerging threat to water scarce areas of pakistan. In 6th International Groundwater Quality Conference, Fremantle, Western Australia,:2007, [9] Yu, G., Sun, D., & Zheng, Y. Health effects of exposure to natural arsenic in groundwater and coal in china: An overview of occurrence. [Research Paper]. Environ Health Perspect, (2007). 115(4): doi: /ehp

6 Appendix Table 1(table of all parameters tested) S.NO. Sampling Area Source Turbidity NTU Salinity % TDS mg/l Arsenic mg/l 1 UC Matiari Kacho Hand pump UC Matiari Kacho Hand pump UC Matiari Kacho motor pump UC Matiari Hand pump UC Matiari Kacho Hand pump UC Matiari Kacho Hand pump UC Matiari Memon Colony motor pump UC Matiari Memon Colony Hand pump UC Matiari Memon Colony motor pump UC Matiari Memon Colony motor pump UC Faqir Nuhthiani Hand pump Bughio Muhalla UC Bhit Shah motor pump Bughio Muhalla UC Bhit Shah motor pump Bughio Muhalla UC Bhit Shah motor pump Bughio Muhalla UC Bhit Shah motor pump Bughio Muhalla UC Bhit Shah motor pump Tambooro Chowk UC Bhit Shah motor pump UC Matiari Memon Colony Hand pump UC Matiari Memon Colony Hand pump UC Matiari Memon Colony motor pump UC Matiari Memon Colony motor pump UC Matiari Memon Colony motor pump UC Matiari Memon Colony motor pump UC Matiari Memon Colony Hand pump UC Matiari Noor Shah Colony Hand pump UC Matiari Noor Shah Colony Hand pump Bhit Shah motor pump Bhit Shah motor pump Bhit Shah motor pump Bhit Shah motor pump Bhit Shah motor pump Pir Noor Shah Colony; Matiari Hand Pump Pir Noor Shah Colony; Matiari motor Pump Pir Noor Shah Colony; Matiari Hand Pump Matiari Stop Hand Pump Matiari Stop Hand Pump Matiari Stop motor pump Mosque; Matiari Stop motor Pump

7 S.NO. Sampling Area Source Turbidity NTU Salinity % TDS mg/l Arsenic mg/l 39 Matiari Stop Hand Pump Govt. School; Matiari Stop Hand Pump Matiari Stop Hand Pump Tamborochowk; Bhit Shah Hand Pump Tamborochowk; Bhit Shah Hand Pump Dargah; Bughiomohalla; Matiari Hand Pump Bughiomohalla; Matiari Hand Pump Bughiomohalla; Matiari Hand Pump Noor Shah Colony; Matiari Hand Pump Noor Shah Colony; Matiari motor pump Noor Shah olony; Matiari motor pump Noor Shah Colony; Matiari motor pump Noor Shah Colony; Matiari motor pump Noor Shah Colony; Matiari Hand Pump Noor Shah Colony; Matiari Hand Pump Noor Shah Colony; Matiari Hand Pump Bhit Shah Hand Pump Bhit Shah Hand Pump Bhit Shah Hand Pump Bhit Shah Hand Pump Bhit Shah Hand Pump NasarPur Motor Pump NasarPur Motor Pump NasarPur Hand Pump NasarPur Motor Pump NasarPur Motor Pump NasarPur Motor Pump NasarPur Hand Pump NasarPur Motor Pump NasarPur Motor Pump NasarPur Motor Pump NasarPur Motor Pump NasarPur Hand Pump NasarPur Motor Pump NasarPur Motor Pump Matiari motor Pump UC I Hala Hand Pump Matiari motor pump New Hala motor pump New Hala motor pump New Hala motor pump UC I Hala motor pump

8 S.NO. Sampling Area Source Turbidity NTU Salinity % TDS mg/l Arsenic mg/l 81 UC I Hala Hand Pump UC I Hala Hand Pump Talabulmola colony hala Hand Pump UC I Hala motor Pump UC I Hala Hand Pump