ISOTOPE TECHNIQUES AND WATER CHEMISTRY FOR STUDYING SPECIFIC PROBLEMS IN PAKISTAN

Techniques based on the properties of isotopes and water chemistry are being used by researcher world over in various fields e.g. hydrology, geothermics, water pollution etc. A brief review of some the application made by others and relevant to the work is present in this thesis. General principles of these techniques are also described.. As specialized equipment and laboratory environment are generally necessary for the application of these techniques, description of the facilities established at PINSTECH is included in this thesis.\ud \ud In Pakistan, the isotope techniques and water chemistry have been applied to study the interrelationship between surface water and groundwater, movement of water in the unsaturated zone, artificial; recharge of groundwater by a delay action dam, sources of groundwater salinity and water logging, pollution of shallow groundwater, geothermal waters of Northern Areas etc. In particular, tritium in the sources of input to groundwater i.e. precipitation and river water was measured and the data accumulated over several years is discussed. A number of radioactive tracers have been used to determine groundwater flow velocity by single well method, aquifer parameters by multi well technique, layout plan of about 350 years old terracotta pipeline in Shalimar Gardens, Lahore. The uniqueness and effectiveness of these techniques in studying various problems are evident from the results achieved in the aforesaid application which would have been extremely difficult if not impossible by other methods