Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Vehari Campus, 61100, Vehari, Pakistan.
Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Faisalabad 38040, Pakistan; MARUM and Department of Geosciences, University of Bremen, Bremen D, 28359, Germany; Southern Cross GeoScience, Southern Cross University, Lismore 2480, NSW, Australia.
Environ Pollut. 2018 Nov;242(Pt A):307-319. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2018.06.083. Epub 2018 Jun 28.
Globally, millions of people who rely on groundwater for potable purposes and agriculture have been inadvertently exposed to toxic arsenic (As) because of its natural occurrence in groundwater in several countries of Asia, Europe and America. While the presence of As in groundwater and its impacts on human health have been documented in many countries, there is little information on As contamination in Pakistan. This review highlights, for the first time, the extent and severity of As-induced problems in Pakistan based on relevant published papers; discusses possible sources of As contamination of aquifers; and estimates As-induced potential health hazards in the country in relation to global data. Data from 43 studies (>9882 groundwater samples) were used to describe As variability in groundwater of Pakistan and for comparison with global data. The mean groundwater As content reported in these studies was 120 μg/L (range: 0.1-2090 μg/L; SD: ±307). About 73% of the values for mean As contents in the 43 studies were higher than the World Health Organization (WHO) permissible limit (10 μg/L) for drinking water, while 41% were higher than the permissible limit of As in Pakistan (50 μg/L). It was observed that groundwater samples in some areas of Punjab and Sindh provinces contained high As concentrations which were almost equal to concentrations reported in the most contaminated areas of the world. We predicted that the mean values of ADD, HQ and CR were 4.4 μg kgday (range: 0-77 μg kgday), 14.7 (range: 0-256) and 0.0029 (range: 0-0.0512), respectively, based on mean As concentrations reported in Pakistan. In addition, this article proposes some integrated sustainable solutions and future perspectives keeping in view the regional and global context, as well as the on-ground reality of the population drinking As-contaminated water, planning issues, awareness among civil society and role of the government bodies. Based on available data, it is predicted that almost 47 million people in Pakistan are residing in areas where more than 50% of groundwater wells contain As concentrations above the WHO recommended limit of As in drinking water.
全球范围内，由于砷在一些亚洲、欧洲和美洲国家的地下水中自然存在，数以百万计依赖地下水作为饮用水和农业用水的人无意中受到了有毒砷的影响。尽管许多国家都记录了地下水中砷的存在及其对人类健康的影响，但关于巴基斯坦砷污染的信息却很少。本综述首次根据相关已发表的论文，重点介绍了巴基斯坦砷污染的程度和严重性；讨论了含水层砷污染的可能来源；并根据全球数据估计了该国砷污染带来的潜在健康危害。使用 43 项研究（>9882 个地下水样本）的数据来描述巴基斯坦地下水中砷的变异性，并与全球数据进行比较。这些研究报告的地下水砷含量平均值为 120μg/L（范围：0.1-2090μg/L；SD：±307μg/L）。43 项研究中约 73%的平均值高于世界卫生组织（WHO）规定的饮用水砷含量允许限值（10μg/L），而 41%的平均值高于巴基斯坦规定的砷含量允许限值（50μg/L）。研究发现，旁遮普省和信德省部分地区的地下水样本中含有高浓度的砷，几乎与世界上污染最严重地区报告的浓度相当。根据巴基斯坦报告的砷浓度平均值，我们预测平均 ADD、HQ 和 CR 值分别为 4.4μgkgday（范围：0-77μgkgday）、14.7（范围：0-256）和 0.0029（范围：0-0.0512）。此外，本文考虑到区域和全球背景、受污染人群的实际情况、规划问题、民间社会的意识以及政府机构的作用，提出了一些综合的可持续解决方案和未来展望。根据现有数据，预计巴基斯坦约有 4700 万人居住在超过 50%的地下水井中砷浓度超过 WHO 推荐饮用水砷含量限值的地区。
