September 30, 2006

Pakistan is a very beautiful country with a 900km coastline. It also has a number of natural fresh water resources as well as mountains. Meanwhile our deserts are also considered to be beautiful in their own way.

The Thar Desert of district Tharparkar lies in the south-eastern corner of Sindh. It is bounded on the eastern side by the border with India, in the north by district Khairpur and in the west by the districts of Mirpurkhas and Badin. Historians say that thousands of years ago the Thar Desert was under the Arabian Sea. Geologists, however, believe that the sea turned to a desert because an earthquake and stormy winds created sand dunes.

The great Arabian Sea then changed its route leaving the land completely dry, thus, turning it into a desert, spread over about 22,000sq.km having a population of more than 1.2 million people.

The Thar area has a tropical desert climate. The months of April, May and June are the hottest ones. The average maximum and minimum temperatures during this period range from 24oC to 41oC. December, January and February are comparatively cooler months with average maximum and minimum temperatures lying between 9oC to 28oC. Rainfall varies from year to year. Rain mostly falls in the monsoon months between June and September whereas winter rains are insignificant.

Like many deserts, Thar provides habitat for a wide variety of animals. The desert fox and the caracal — a short-tailed, tufted-eared wild cat — hunt here. Both predators eat rodents and birds; the caracal also hunts small-hoofed animals. One of the major problems of Thar Desert is fluoride which is found in rocks, plants, animals, air, and water in varying concentrations. Because it is highly reactive, fluoride commonly exists in the ionic form as fluoride and enters the human body by ingestion, inhalation, and, in extreme cases, through skin. Water-borne fluoride is absorbed more rapidly than that ingested through food. The fluoride absorbed by the body, if not excreted, can cause teeth and nail striations, dental fluorosis, or on prolonged exposure to high levels of fluoride, skeletal fluorosis.

Preliminary investigations carried in the area have shown that it is a high fluoride zone and a number of health problems associated with high fluoride are prevalent. Among the adverse effects of drinking water quality, fluoride fluorosis is a serious disease among the local population of Thar Desert. The chronic intake of excessive fluoride leads to the severe and permanent bone and joint deformations of skeletal fluorosis.

The Thar Desert has a unique geological and geographical position. The land of Thar, the way of its inhabitants, peculiarity of its physical features, a particular type of climate and its natural life combine together to make it an interesting region to study and understand different elements, making it different. Due to its unique topography, soil, vegetation and hydrogeological situations, it possesses immense potential for scientific research. There are number of scientific problems associated with the quality of available groundwater used for drinking. Among them, fluoride and microbiological diseases are common in Thar.

The writers are freelance contributors

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