KARACHI, Aug 24: Scientists at the University of Karachi have planned a pilot project for evolving a hygienic groundwater management system at Islamkot and its surrounding villages in Tharparkar district.

According to sources on the campus, the KU's Institute of Environment Studies had submitted proposals for a three-year research project aimed at improving the existing water supply system in Thar desert.

The provincial environment department had forwarded the project, costing about Rs38.3 million, to the federal government which finally approved it in May 2004 and included it in the Annual Development Programme 2004-2005, added the source.

An area of about 1,000 square kms, comprising Islamkot and surroundings villages within a radius of 16 kms has been selected as the project area. Field data of varying disciplines, like open wells inventories, water and soil samples of open wells, demography, climate with special reference to natural conditions, health and hygienic, different vector diseases and socio-economic conditions, would be acquired for the study.

Director of the institute Dr Nayyer Alam Zaigham said that water supply, sanitation and hygiene in the Thar desert region needed specific attention. Referring to some past field investigations in the region, he mentioned that generally the open wells had not adequately been lined and they had cavities of varying sizes in the walls which provided hatcheries to flies and insects during extremely hot daytime and extremely cold night time conditions in the desert.

"The insects' concentration is so high that when the water bucket is pulled out or dropped in, the insects fly and, as such, one cannot see the water table down into the well," he said, adding that the frequent exposure of the insects to the unhygienic environment outside the dug up wells could serve as conveyer to transport a variety of microorganism into the cavities of the wells' walls, ultimately contaminating the wells' water.

Mr Zaigham was of the view that cattle and other animals moving or gathering in the wells' surroundings provided passionate pathogenic pollution, which also transported directly to the wells trough the bucket-rope when placed on the dirty ground and dropped into the wells frequently.

It is said that contamination was one of the major sources of environmental degradation and unhealthy environment particularly in relation to the maternal and child health care.

Moreover, unhygienic water appeared a serious public health problem which ultimately led to disabling people to work and increasing financial burden on the community dragging them deeper into the poverty whirlpool.

Dr Zaigham said that different options, based on the results of integrated investigations, would be tried for evolving an environment-friendly water management system.

The options included proper lining of dug up wells and cappingof their openings and a mechanism involving renewable energy technology to pump out the ground water, he added.

One of the other options may be to abandon the existing, already contaminated, open wells and designing and development of shallow tube-wells powered by windmill/solar energy/diesel generator or a combination of any of these two sources.

The tube wells may be operated through some other means and handpumps to draw water are yet another option to draw water. Dr Zaigham said that microbiological contamination could be removed with the installation of ozonization water treatment plants, while rational water management and distribution system could be evolved through the direct participation of community.

He said that the evolved system and efforts towards other options would play a key role in the prevention of diseases and restoration of healthy environment which could result in an enhanced working efficiency of Thar people that could curtail medical burden and poverty in Thar region.