Skip to main content

The Microbial and Physicochemical Analysis and Treatment of Groundwater of South Punjab, Pakistan

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Sustainable Energy-Water-Environment Nexus in Deserts

Abstract

The availability of clean water is one of the pivotal objectives toward sustainable growth of any country. Pakistan, as a developing country, is facing the problem of bad water quality for decades and purification of groundwater has always been a problem. Thus, the present study aims to give a realistic picture of microbial contamination of groundwater of the two districts of the Province Punjab, Pakistan. Furthermore, we treat groundwater in our newly built robust water purification system which is cost-effective to check the efficiency of this system against microbial contaminations. Microbial contamination may lead to many water-borne diseases. The higher rates of microbial contamination including the levels of coliform, heterotrophic plate count and E. coli are found in 38 samples collected across different sites of the study area. Furthermore, we have treated these contaminated water samples by using a newly developed indigenous water purification system which is highly cost-effective and easy to use. All the contaminants were found below the WHO limit after treatment. Thus, we recommend the use of this robust water purification system which may help us to resolve the water crisis in an economically stressed country like Pakistan.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 189.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 249.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 249.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • American Public Health Association, Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Waste Water. 19th edn. (American water works association, Water Environment Federation, Washington, 2005)

    Google Scholar 

  • I.S. Babiker, A.A.M. Mohamed, Groundwater Quality assessment using GIS, the case of Omdurman area, central Sudan. Sudan J. Sci. 6, 22–33 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  • J. Chen, D. Zhu, C. Sun, Effect of heavy metals on the sorption of hydrophobic organic compounds to wood charcoal. Environ. Sci. Technol. 41, 2536–2541 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  • B. Daus, R. Wennrich, H. Weiss, Sorption materials for arsenic removal from water: a comparative study. Water Res. 38, 2948–2954 (2004)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • M.A. Grace, M.G. Healy, E. Clifford, Performance and Surface clogging in intermittently loaded and slow sand filters containing novel media. J. Environ. Manage. 180, 102–110 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  • R.P. Hall, B. Van-Koppen, E. Houweling, The human right to water: the importance of domestic and productive water rights. Sci. Eng. Ethics 20, 849–868 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  • A. Hassan, M. Nawaz, Microbiological and physicochemical assessments of groundwater quality at Punjab, Pakistan. African J. Microbiol. Res. 8, 2672–2681 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • S. Haydar, M. Arshad, J.A. Aziz, Evaluation of drinking water quality in urban areas of Pakistan: a case study of Southern Lahore. Pakistan J. Eng. Appl. Sci. 5, 16–23 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  • E. Joel, S.A. Musstab, A.S. Eqani, T. Khanam, R. Ullah, H. Shen, M. Berg, Extensive arsenic contamination in high-pH unconfined aquifers in the Indus Valley. Sci Adv. 3 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  • S. Kapaj, H. Peterson, K. Liber, P. Bhattacharya, Human health effects from chronic arsenic poisoning–a review. J. Environ. Sci. Health Part A 41, 2399–2428 (2006)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Z. Karim, Risk assessment of dissolved trace metals in drinking water of Karachi, Pakistan. Bull. Environ. Contamination Toxicol. 86, 676–678 (2011)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • S. Khan, M. Shahnaz, N. Jehan, S. Rehman, M.T. Shah, I. Din, Drinking water quality and human health risk in Charsadda district, Pakistan. J. Clean. Prod. 60, 93–101 (2013)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • A.H. Khan, S.B. Rasul, A.K.M. Munir, M. Habibuddowla, M. Alauddin, S.S. Newaz, A. Hussam, Appraisal of a simple arsenic removal method for ground water of Bangladesh. J. Environ. Sci. Health Part A 35, 1021–1041 (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  • E.O. Longe, M.R. Balogun, Ground water quality assessment near a municipal landfill, Lagos, Nigeria. Res. J. Appl. Sci. Eng. Technol. 2, 39–44 (2010)

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Q. Mahmood, S.A. Baig, B. Nawab, M.N. Shafqat, A. Pervez, B.S. Zeb, Development of low cost household drinking water treatment system for the earthquake affected communities in Northern Pakistan. Desalination 273, 316–320 (2011)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • N.C. Mondal, V.S. Singh, V.K. Saxena, R.K. Prasad, Improvement of groundwater quality due to fresh water ingress in Potharlanka Island, Krishna Delta, India. Environ Geol. 55, 595–603 (2008)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • NEQS, Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality, pp. 1–3, 2002

    Google Scholar 

  • PCRWR, Water Quality Status of Major Cities of Pakistan 2015–16 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  • E.J. Podgorski,,S.A. Musstab, A.S. Eqani, T.K. Rizwan-Ullah, H. Shen, M. Berg, Extensive arsenic contamination in high-pH unconfined aquifers in the Indus Valley. Sci. Adv. 3 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  • M.M. Rehman, R. Naidu, P. Bhattacharya, Arsenic contamination in groundwater in the Southeast Asia region. Environ. Geochem. Health 31(1), 9–21 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • D.C. Reid, A.C. Edwards, D. Cooper, E. Wilson, B.A. Mcgaw, The quality of drinking water from private water supplies in Aberdeenshire, UK. Water Res. 37, 245–254 (2003)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • N. Shahid, Z. Zia, M. Shahid, H.F. Bakhat, S. Anwar, G.M. Shah, M.R. Ashraf, Assessing drinking water quality in Punjab, Pakistan. Polish J. Environ. Stud. 24, 2597–2606 (2015)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • P.L. Smeldy, D.G. Kinniburgh, A review of the source, behavior and distribution of arsenic in natural waters. Appl. Geochem. 17, 517–568 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • J.K. Tumwine, J. Thompson, M. Katua-Katua, M. Mujwajuzi, N. Johnstone, E. Wood, I. Porras, Diarrhoea and effects of different water sources, sanitation and hygiene behaviour In East Africa. Trop. Med. Int. Health. 7, 750 (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  • UNESCO, International Initiative on Water Quality, 2015

    Google Scholar 

  • WHO, Health impact of acidic deposition. Sci. Total Environ. 52, 157 (1986)

    Google Scholar 

  • World Health Organization, Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality. 1 Recommendations, 3rd edn. (World health organization, Geneva, 2004)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Abdul Majid Khan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Khan, A.M. et al. (2022). The Microbial and Physicochemical Analysis and Treatment of Groundwater of South Punjab, Pakistan. In: Heggy, E., Bermudez, V., Vermeersch, M. (eds) Sustainable Energy-Water-Environment Nexus in Deserts. Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76081-6_10

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics