MITHI, Jan 17: Speakers at a seminar on "arsenic contamination in groundwater and its mitigation measures" on Monday demanded that water-testing laboratories should be established in Sindh districts.

The seminar was organized by the Sindh local government department and the district government in collaboration with Unicef. Highlighting the arsenic contamination of water resources, Dr Sikandar Panhwar said arsenic contamination of water had a major impact on water supply, health, agriculture, irrigation and environment.

"The government is working on development technologies for arsenic removal, water purification and microbial and arsenic testing" he said. Dr Panhwar said at present available technological options for arsenic mitigation were being explored for implementation by the government.

He said more than 20 countries had experienced arsenic contamination. The major pandemic spread over Bangladesh, India, China, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Thailand and the USA.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency report, about 34 million people were exposed to unsafe levels of arsenic in 25 US states, he said. Dr Panhwar said India and Bangladesh had remained victim of arsenic contamination of drinking water and Pakistan had many geomorphologic similarities with the two countries.

"Coal mining, drains of crystalline rocks and high dissolved iron contents are the risk factors in many areas of Pakistan" he said. He said that analysis of 1,628 water samples of wells in Tharparkar, presence of arsenic was found merely in water of eight wells and it was observed that ratio of arsenic in Tharparkar water was about 0.4 per cent.

He said the prime minister had ordered to establish a laboratory of water testing quality in every district of the country. He said such machine was available in the Sindh Agriculture University which could be obtained on nominal charges for testing the quality of water.

Suggesting remedial measures against arsenic contamination, he urged that districts having high prevalence of arsenic contamination be surveyed. Dr Tamiz Ahmed, District Naib Nazim Ram Singh Sodho, DCO Gul Hassan Channo and Faqir Sher Mohammad Bulalani spoke on the occasion.