Irfan Muhammad, Mahboob Alam M, Khan Shahbaz, Khan Ilyas, Eldin Sayed M
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Engineering and Applied Science, Swat, 19060, Pakistan.
Department of Cıvil Engineering, City University of Science and Information Technology, Peshawar, Pakistan.
Sci Rep. 2023 Jul 18;13(1):11615. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-38018-8.
Water plays a key role in the economic growth of an agricultural country. Pakistan is a farming country that uses almost 90% of its water resources for agriculture. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province of Pakistan has extensive surface water resources. In addition to using groundwater resources for irrigation, large parts of its flat plains are irrigated with the Kabul River surface water. Due to large population growth and unregulated small/local scale industries in the region, surface water quality deteriorates with time, which affects people's health when polluted surface water is used for irrigation purposes. This research investigates the surface water quality of Kabul River's different tributaries. It identifies the most critical and vulnerable locations regarding water quality using the weightage-based identification method and distance-based iteration method, respectively. The Bara River exhibited the most critical location, surpassing the threshold values by a considerable margin in at least seven water quality parameters. The maximum seven critical values determined against the Bara River using the weightage-based method, i.e., 17.5, 5.95, 7.35, 27.65, 1.75, 0.35, and 10.45 for total alkalinity, sodium, total hardness, magnesium, total suspended solids, biological oxygen demand (BOD), and turbidity. The Khairabad station, where the Kabul River meets the Indus River, was identified as vulnerable due to elevated levels of total suspended solids, hardness, sulfate, sodium, and magnesium using distance-based methods. The locations, i.e. Adezai, Jindi, Pabbi, and Warsak Dam, appeared critical and vulnerable due to the prevalence of small-scale industries on their bank and high population densities. All the results are finally compared with the interpolated values over the entire region using Kriging interpolation to identify critical and vulnerable areas accurately. The results from the distance and weightage-based methods aligned with the physical reality on the ground further validate the results. The critical and vulnerable locations required immediate attention and preventive measures to address the deteriorating water quality parameters by installing monitoring stations and treatment plants to stop further contamination of the particular parameter.
水在农业国家的经济增长中起着关键作用。巴基斯坦是一个农业国家，其水资源近90%用于农业。巴基斯坦开伯尔-普赫图赫瓦省（KPK）拥有丰富的地表水资源。除了利用地下水资源进行灌溉外，该省大部分平原地区还利用喀布尔河地表水进行灌溉。由于该地区人口大量增长以及小型/地方工业无节制发展，地表水水质随时间恶化，当使用受污染的地表水进行灌溉时，会影响人们的健康。本研究调查了喀布尔河不同支流的地表水水质。分别使用基于权重的识别方法和基于距离的迭代方法，确定了水质最关键和最脆弱的位置。巴拉河显示出最关键的位置，至少在七个水质参数方面大幅超过阈值。使用基于权重的方法针对巴拉河确定的最大七个临界值，即总碱度、钠、总硬度、镁、总悬浮固体、生物需氧量（BOD）和浊度的临界值分别为17.5、5.95、7.35、27.65、1.75、0.35和10.45。喀布尔河与印度河交汇处的海拉巴德站，由于使用基于距离的方法得出总悬浮固体、硬度、硫酸盐、钠和镁的含量升高，被确定为脆弱地区。阿代宰、金迪、帕比和瓦尔萨克大坝等地，由于岸边存在小型工业且人口密度高，显得关键且脆弱。最后，使用克里金插值法将所有结果与整个区域的插值结果进行比较，以准确识别关键和脆弱区域。基于距离和权重的方法得出的结果与实地实际情况相符，进一步验证了结果。关键和脆弱地区需要立即关注并采取预防措施，通过安装监测站和处理厂来解决水质参数恶化问题，以阻止特定参数的进一步污染。
