By

Maryum Atique

M.Phil (Chemistry)

Arsenic

Cadmium

Lead

Nickel

Copper

Chromium

Iron

Zinc

Area Arsenic concentration was found high in surface andgroundwater in Pakistan mainly in two provinces, that is, Punjaband Sind.

Risk Assessment The World Health Organizationprovisional guideline value for As concentration in drinkingwater is 10 μg/L. Water resources (3% and 16%) having Ascontamination level of over 50 μg/L are reported in Punjab andSind, respectively, while 20% and 36% of water resources ofPunjab and Sind are contaminated with arsenic above 10 μg/L.

Arsenic exposure It causes a markedly elevated riskfor developing a number of cancers, most notably skin cancerand cancers of the liver, lung, bladder, and possibly the kidneyand colon.

Area Cd concentration was found high in surface andgroundwater in Pakistan mainly in two provinces, that is,Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Kalpani drain), Sind (Malir Riverand Korangi area in Karachi).

Risk Assessment In drinking water the tolerableconcentration set by WHO is 0.003 mg/L forCd. Hayatabad Industrial Estate, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa(KPK) province (0.21 mg/L). Korangi area, Karachi(5.35 mg/L ). Moreover, in north and east zones of Lahore,Punjab province,(> the safe limit).

Human exposure Cd and its compounds arecausing cancer of the lung, kidney and of the prostate. Cdintoxication can also leads to pulmonary damages, kidneydamage, skeletal damage, and itai-itai diseases.

Area Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJ&K), Sialkot, Akbarpura

area of district Nowshera, Hattar Industrial Estate, KPK

Risk Assessment In Pakistan, most of the ground

water samples exceeded the permissible limit of 0.01 mg/Lset by WHO for drinking water. AJ&K(1.8 and 4.7 mg/L),Hattar Industrial Estate (KPK) 0.26 mg/L, Sialkot,Punjab (> 0.01 mg/L).

Human exposure health problems, ranging from

small effects on metabolism and intelligence toconvulsions, coma, renal failure, cancer and death.

Area Karachi( Lyari, Karachi Port Trust (KPT), Lahore(North and East zone).

Risk Assessment National Standards for DrinkingWater Quality, Pakistan (NSDWQ-Pak), suggest theguideline value of 0.02 mg/L. Jhangar Valley, Punjabprovince, the maximum total content of Ni in soil wasrecorded as 81 mg/Kg , 70 mg/kg in Kohistan region. Insoil, the highest concentration of Ni is 324 mg/kg (mean172 mg/kg) from contaminated Lahore site.

Human exposure It cause cancers of the lung andof the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses.

Area Zoab (Balochistan), Kasur (Punjab).

Risk Assessment In ground water samples from various regions in Pakistan show Cr variation ranging from <0.001 to 9.8 mg/L, being the highest (mean value 2.12 mg/L) in well water from residential area, Kasur, Punjab province , whereas surface water contamination was found in the range of 0.16–0.29 mg/L Bara River, Nowshera, KPK province .

Human exposure cancer of the lung, nose and nasal sinuses.

Map of Pakistan showing the Cd, Cr, Ni, Pb,and As concentration in ground water(mean values; where mean value is notavailable, the highest values are used).

Rehman, W., Zeb, A., Noor, N., & Nawaz, M. (2008). Heavy metal pollution assessment in various industries of Pakistan. Environmental geology, 55(2), 353-358.

A. Azizullah, M. N. K. Khattak, P. Richter, and D. Häder, “Water pollution in Pakistan and its impact on public health—a review,” Environment International, vol. 37, no. 2, pp. 479–497, 2011.

Waseem, A., Arshad, J., Iqbal, F., Sajjad, A., Mehmood, Z., & Murtaza, G. (2014). Pollution Status of Pakistan: A Retrospective Review on Heavy Metal Contamination of Water, Soil, and Vegetables. BioMed research international,2014.