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Arsenic Contamination, Water Toxicity, Source Apportionment, and Potential Health Risk in Groundwater of Jhelum Basin, Punjab, Pakistan

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Abstract

Potable groundwater (GW) contamination through arsenic (As) is a commonly reported environmental issue in Pakistan. In order to examine the groundwater quality for As contamination, its geochemical behavior, and other physicochemical parameters, 69 samples from various groundwater sources were collected from the mining area of Pind Dadan Khan, Punjab, Pakistan. The results showed the concentration of elevated As, its source of mobilization, and linked public health risk. Arsenic detected in the groundwater samples varied from 0.5 to 100 µg/L, with an average value of 21.38 µg/L. Forty-two samples were beyond the acceptable limit of 10 µg/L of the WHO for drinking purposes. The statistical summary showed that the groundwater cation concentration was in decreasing order such as Na+  > Ca2+  > Mg2+ > K+, while anions were as follows: HCO3− > SO42− > Cl− > NO3−. Hydrochemical facies results depicted that groundwater samples belong to CaHCO3 type. Rock-water interactions control the hydrochemistry of groundwater. Saturation indices’ results indicated the saturation of the groundwater sources for CO3 minerals due to their positive SI values. Such minerals include aragonite, calcite, dolomite, and fluorite. The principal component analysis (PCA) findings possess a total variability of 77.36% suggesting the anthropogenic and geogenic contributing sources of contaminant. The results of the Exposure-health-risk-assessment model for measuring As reveal significant potential carcinogenic risk exceeding the threshold level (value > 10−4) and HQ level (value > 1.0).

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources for sample analysis and materials support.

Funding

This work was supported by the Research Fund of Guilin University of Technology (Grant No. RD18103065).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Studies, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, People’s Republic of China

    Zahid Ullah, Abdur Rashid, Junaid Ghani & Muhammad Afnan Talib

  2. College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guilin University of Technology, Guilin, 541004, People’s Republic of China

    Asfandyar Shahab

  3. State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Health Risk Assessment, South China Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Guangzhou, 510655, China

    Lu Lun

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  1. Zahid Ullah
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  2. Abdur Rashid
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  6. Lu Lun
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Zahid Ullah, Abdur Rashid, Junaid Ghani, Muhammad Afnan Talib, Asfandyar Shahab, and Lu Lun. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Zahid Ullah and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Asfandyar Shahab.

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Ullah, Z., Rashid, A., Ghani, J. et al. Arsenic Contamination, Water Toxicity, Source Apportionment, and Potential Health Risk in Groundwater of Jhelum Basin, Punjab, Pakistan. Biol Trace Elem Res 201, 514–524 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-022-03139-0

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