LAHORE, June 17: Local Government and Community Development (LGCD) Director General Tahir Husain has announced Rs20million for the development and survey of water problems in Punjab at a seminar on arsenic monitoring and mitigation here on Tuesday.

Organised in conjunction with the government of Punjab and the UNICEF, the seminar discussed the findings of UNICEF Chief Provincial Officer Dr Deepak Bajracharaya, whose team conducted arsenic and bacterial surveys throughout Punjab.

Arsenic is a naturally occurring element present in atmosphere, soils, rocks, organisms and groundwater, which poses a serious threat to public health, according to Dr Shaheena Manzoor, dean of the Institute of Public Health (IPH). Survey work carried out by the LGCD, Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) with support by UNICEF in 2007 indicates that arsenic contamination is widespread throughout the province, while bacterial contamination is prevalent in more than 50 per cent of cases.

Exposure to large quantities of arsenic, which leaves a garlic like after-taste in the mouth, can lead to acute symptoms within 30-60 minutes such as dry mouth, burning lops, vomiting and vomiting of blood. It can also result in organ failure, failure and cardiovascular system, brain functions, and death.

Documented long term effects of exposure to lower quantities of arsenic in drinking water include gangrene, skin diseases and cancers, weakness, red eye, cough, bronchitis, vomiting, gastroenteritis, ulcer, diabetes, hypertension, nephropathy, cancer of bladder, lungs, kidney and the liver.

World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines state that arsenic levels above 10 parts per billion (ppb) are considered a threat to health. Researchers took thousands of water samples in various districts of Punjab and found that unacceptable levels of arsenic contamination occurred in 7 per cent of samples in Rahim Yar Khan and Liaqat Pur, 10 per cent in Bahawalpur, 28 per cent in Kasur and 31 per cent in Sheikhupura.

Bacterial contamination was even more prevalent with 55 per cent of sources contaminated with coliform bacteria in Rahim Yar Khan and Bahawalpur alone.