PESHAWAR, May 21: The United Nations Children’s Fund will conduct surveys in Dera Ismail Khan, Mardan and Chitral districts next month about the presence of arsenic in water. Officials said here that long-term exposure to arsenic — a colourless, odourless and tasteless semi-metal —in drinking water increased risk of cancer of skin, lungs, bladder and kidneys. It entered the body through food, water and air, they said.

They said the survey was being conducted in the backdrop of a study conducted in Dera Ismail Khan last year by Unicef, the University of Engineering and Technology and a non-government organization, Wesnet, that had found arsenic in six water samples out of 25 collected from areas in five union councils.

Most of the people in urban as well as rural areas in the district used water from tube wells, hand pumps, motor pumps and river.

The officials said Unicef would conduct the survey in collaboration with the Pakistan Council for Research and Water Resources (PCRWR) and the tehsil municipal administrations.

If arsenic was found in water, Unicef would adopt a joint strategy with the provincial and local governments to cope with the situation, they said.

They said the underground water resources in the NWFP were naturally clean and fit for human consumption but poor management, maintenance and repair of supply channels was the main cause of contamination.

The population residing near the in Dera Ismail Khan has a high risk of arsenic contamination, said the officials citing the earlier study.

They said Chitral and Mardan had been included in the survey in view of reports of arsenic contamination there.

They said that about 60 per cent of diarrhoeal diseases were caused by polluted water.

Unicef and the PCRWR have warned that water in Jhelum, Gujrat, Multan, Bahawalpur, Rahimyar Khan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Layyah, Jhang, Sargodha, Muzaffargarh, Dadu and Khairpur is unfit for human consumption.

The World Health Organization’s guidelines recommend 10 parts of arsenic per one billion in drinking water as negligible.

The officials said several organizations would spend more that $200 million over five years to improve the quality of water and sanitation in the NWFP.

They said awareness campaigns were being launched for better management of water resources.