Earth Sciences Department, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan.
National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad 44000, Pakistan.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Feb 15;17(4):1255. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17041255.
Water is essential for life, agriculture, and industrialization; however, a rapid increase in population is constantly causing water scarcity and pollution in Pakistan. Mining activities produce the potential toxic element (PTE) accumulation, which lead to unnatural enrichment, ecological pollution, and environmental degradation. The ecological resources impeded by the PTEs cause serious abnormalities in the population through dermal contact, inhalation, and digestion. Mining induced anthropogenic activities are well-known causes of contamination of ecological resources. The produced effluents have drastic effects by changing the physical, chemical, and biological properties of the concerned resources. The Central Indus Basin is a well-known coal regime, where more than 160 mines are active at present. The samples that were collected from the mine water, groundwater, surface water, and the soil were analyzed by atomic absorption and elemental determination analysis (EDA) for an assessment of their quality and the presence of PTEs. The results were correlated with available quality standards, including the World Health Organization (WHO), National Standard of Drinking Water Quality (NSDWQ), World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and Sediment Quality Guidelines (SQGs). These analyses showed the noticeable anthropogenic concentration of PTEs, like iron, cadmium, sulphur, and copper, which can degrade the quality of resources in the Central Indus Basin and have adverse effects on human health. An excessive amount of acid mine drainage (AMD) draws attention to some suitable active or passive treatments for disposal from mines to avoid degradation of ecological resources in the Central Indus Basin of Pakistan.
水是生命、农业和工业化的必需品；然而，人口的快速增长不断导致巴基斯坦水资源短缺和污染。采矿活动产生潜在有毒元素（PTE）的积累，导致自然富集、生态污染和环境退化。受 PTE 影响的生态资源造成了人口的严重异常，通过皮肤接触、吸入和消化。采矿引起的人为活动是生态资源污染的已知原因。产生的废水通过改变有关资源的物理、化学和生物特性产生了巨大影响。中央印度河流域是一个著名的煤炭区，目前有超过 160 个矿山在开采。从矿水、地下水、地表水和土壤中采集的样本通过原子吸收和元素测定分析（EDA）进行分析，以评估其质量和 PTE 的存在。结果与现有的质量标准进行了相关性分析，包括世界卫生组织（WHO）、国家饮用水质量标准（NSDWQ）、世界自然基金会（WWF）和沉积物质量指南（SQGs）。这些分析表明，PTE，如铁、镉、硫和铜，存在明显的人为浓度，这可能会降低中央印度河流域资源的质量，并对人类健康产生不利影响。大量的酸性矿山排水（AMD）引起了人们对一些合适的主动或被动处理方法的关注，以便从矿山中进行处理，以避免巴基斯坦中央印度河流域生态资源的退化。
