Sustained Applications of Pesticides and Fertilizers in Sugarcane, Cotton and Wheat Cultivated Areas Causes Ground Water Arsenic Contamination- District Rahim Yar

Abstract: Due to over all water scarcity situation, more reliance is made on local groundwater sources for drinking and other human needs /purposes. Most of the boreholes or shallow wells are confined to upper aquifers which are exposed to contamination from all sorts of wastewaters and run-off from agricultural field etc. Water quality monitoring from these ground water sources remained irregular, as main focus was on surface water quality monitoring. Information on seasonal water quality changes in surface and ground water was generally lacking. Natural factors facilitating introduction of arsenic into water are related to geomorphology, tectonic activities and chemical components of water bearing formations (Tong, 2002; Htay, 2004, Fengthong, 2004). Keeping in view the prevalence of arsenic in district Rahim Yar khan, a confirmatory arsenic testing was carried out and it was revealed that out of 45 samples, tested for arsenic contamination, 57.78 % were having more than 100 ppb arsenic contamination and 35.56 % were having arsenic contamination more than 50 ppb, which were higher than the WHO limits. During 2006, UNICEF installed some kind of arsenic removal technologies in the area, which were not sustainable due to lack of technical know and resources essentially needed during post project periods. At the same time n