Surface and Groundwater Pollution: the Invisible, Creeping Threat to Human Health

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>This study reports pollution source apportionment of surface waters and human health risk assessment based on 18 physicochemical and traces elements from 24 water quality monitoring sites for surface and groundwater around the two trans-boundary rivers of Pakistan: The Ravi and Sutlej. The principal component analysis identified 6 principal components (76.98 % cumulative variance) which are mainly caused by untreated industrial effluents, intense agricultural activities, and irrigation tailwater discharges. For all dissolved trace elements in surface waters, health hazard indices (HI) and hazard quotients (HQ) through ingestion and dermal contact are &lt; 1 except As and Cr through ingestion only (for both adults and children). For adults and children, the HQingestion and HI values for As, Mn, Cu (for children only) and As, Fe, Mn (for children only) are &gt; 1, indicating that As, Mn, Fe, and Cu are the most important pollutants causing chronic risks among the selected trace elements in both shallow and deep groundwater respectively. HQingestion, HQdermal, and HI values are higher for children than that of adults which shows the high susceptibility of children to these dissolved trace elements. The carcinogenic indices for the entire surface water elements exceed 10<jats:sup>−6</jats:sup> through dermal and ingestion pathways suggesting carcinogenic health risk to the surrounding community. Hence, to protect human health, wastewater treatment plants and best management practices should be practiced to control point source and nonpoint source pollution respectively in the understudied area.</jats:p>

A Waste Bank Based on the 3R Concept: Student Interest in Waste Management at the Department of Economics, University of Brawijaya

“…However, by participating in the activity, the students will play an important role in a restoration that will be a new goal both economic and environmental. Also, it will train the students to be active to prevent pollution and protect human health by practicing waste management [29]. These findings reveal that the behavioral control of students enrolled in natural resource economics and environmental economics courses encourages their interest in managing waste.…”

Complex Linkage between Watershed Attributes and Surface Water Quality: Gaining Insight via Path Analysis

“…surface runoff, ground water discharge, industrial effluents, soil erosion etc. [35][36][37][38][39]. Mean population has positive linkage with croplands because Indus is the largest basin in Pakistan where people live and grow crops.…”

Use of multivariate analysis to identify phytoplankton bioindicators of stream water quality in the monomodal equatorial agroecological zone of Cameroon

“…Water bodies harbour a very rich biodiversity (Biggs et al, 2017), which is unfortunately threatened by contamination risks from agricultural, industrial, and domestic activities (Egessa et al, 2020;Hanif et al, 2020;Kasonga et al, 2021;Omer, 2020;Shah et al, 2020). Aquatic pollutants from point and non-point sources such as surface run-off from urban areas and farmlands cause water quality deterioration globally (Shah et al, 2020). In developing countries, waste management is particularly challenging(Gallego Schmid & Tarpani, 2019) and as a consequence, water bodies often serve as dumping grounds for domestic wastes.…”