LAHORE: Punjab Aab-e-Pak Authority (PAPA) has provided clean drinking water to over 30,000 residents of many villages of Kasur and Sahiwal who were facing serious health issues by consuming very high levels of arsenic.
The presence of high levels of arsenic in underground water in Kasur and Sahiwal was detected in 2022 and the Judicial Water & Environment Commission has directed PCRWR Laboratory to examine water samples of those areas.
After testing, it was revealed that alarmingly high arsenic in village Badarpur of district Kasur i.e. 5,000 ppb against the normal standards of 10 ppb (WHO standards) were present in underground water.
The matter was discussed among the stakeholders and resultantly, PAPA stepped in to solve the issue for the provision of clean drinking water in village Badarpur and allied areas of district Kasur to eliminate serious health hazards.
PAPA was already executing various safe drinking water solutions across Punjab in phased manner, said Zahid Aziz, CEO of the authority while talking with the scribe. He said in first phase, there was an ongoing installation of 1,000 water filtration plants across the province. The project sites have been selected on the basis of existing water quality, demographic patterns and local area demand.
Talking about the Badarpur village case, Zahid said the authority initiated the field surveys and it was found that Badarpur village was having an arsenic value of 5,000 ppb. The authority officials found that the cause of such huge contamination was geological as there was no nearby industrial activity to boost the arsenic contents.
Nearby surface water channel (Su-e-Aasal) was found arsenic free, he said adding only groundwater was found with high arsenic while the groundwater contamination was also evident from existing hand pumps there and all hand pumps were also found with arsenic contamination.
As a first step, the local administration created awareness among the people about the fact and stopped the usage of these hand pumps, he said adding there was no alternative source of drinking water as existing water supply scheme was found abandoned.
Aab-e-Pak Authority developed the technical view that installation of any Reverse Osmosis plant with arsenic filter will not suffice the purpose because it will be very difficult to maintain arsenic filter clean up to such high level, Zahid maintained and added that it will cost high for operation and maintenance of the project. Hence, the proposed solution could be either deep boring or surface water treatment to achieve long-term and sustainable remedy to problem, he stated. The authority carried out deep bore water quality testing and unfortunately, it was also unsatisfactory after which looking into ground facts, the authority decided to install surface water treatment plant in village Badarpur. Zahid revealed that the major components of project involved installation of containerised surface water treatment unit along the canal with a capacity of 10,000 liters/hr, distribution network for the distribution of water to two adjacent villages i.e. Badapur and Kaliyan benefitting over 14,000 people. The energy requirement of the project was fulfilled mainly by solar power and Wapda as backup arrangement, he said adding the Badarpur project was completed within seven months with a cost of Rs64.365 million including three months operation and maintenance that was extendable to one year. The funding was provided by the UNICEF Pakistan and the project was successfully completed on Sept 20, 2023. Later on, the distribution network was being extended to two more adjacent villages, i.e. Rai Kalan and Ibrahimabad with a cost of Rs40.446 million including three months operation and maintenance - extendable to one year, he added.
It was a big milestone for the authority towards eradication of disease and sufferings of people caused by arsenic contaminated water in village Badarpur, the CEO Zahid Aziz said adding the success of Badarpur project will build trust of beneficiaries and drive awareness among local communities towards usage of clean drinking water. The authority has installed solar-based project that will not burden the community for electricity bills. Only equitable distribution of the water and minor repairs will be carried out by the community whereas, authority will always be available for technical backstopping in case of any major repairs, he concluded.