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Bacterial and toxic pollutants in lakes of river indus
HUMERAH BANO SHAFIQ1,
MUNAZZA AJAZ2 AND SHEIKH AJAZ RASOOL1
Abstract: Indus
river water gets polluted through three sources viz., municipal
wastewater, industrial wastewater and agricultural runoff through
drainage structure. The lakes in Sindh (fed by the river Indus),
constitute the important source of drinking water, recreation and fish,
etc. and offer employment for many. A large number of chemicals that
either exist naturally in the land dissolve in the water, or human
excreta added due to human activity thereby, contaminating and leading
to various diseases. In order to assess the microbial contamination,
detection of pollutant indicator organisms (coliform group), using
Coliform test was performed by Most Probable Number technique and total
bacterial count by Pour Plate method. The level of various heavy metals
(arsenic, calcium, cadmium, chromium, copper, iron, lead, mercury,
potassium, magnesium, manganese, sodium, selenium & zinc) and
electrolytes (Cl-1, HCO3-1) was
monitored in water and fish meat samples collected from Haleji and
Keenjhar lakes to assess the impact of toxic pollutants. Metal
concentrations in water and fish samples were estimated by atomic
absorption spectrophotometry. Total coliform organisms were found in
both the lake water samples, exceeded in 38% samples than the acceptable
limits, while total average aerobic bacterial count analyzed in both the
lakes was 102 CFU/ml – 1010 CFU/ml. Toxic chemical
contaminants were estimated below the detection limit, while other
several (essential) metal ions were found within the range set by WHO,
except arsenic, cadmium and iron that exceeded slightly in 12.5% water
samples. This study was designed to ensure the access of safe and
potable water to urban & rural areas of Sindh. Further, the findings
will help public/private enterprises and public health institutions to
work for the people health friendly policies.
1Laboratory
of Molecular Genetics, Department of Microbiology, University of
Karachi, Karachi 75270, Pakistan
2Department
of Microbiology, Federal Urdu University, Karachi, Pakistan.
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