Abstract:
Islamabad generates about 550-600 metric tons of solid waste on a daily basis, which was previously disposed off in the right of way of Kashmir highway near sector H-12. This was a temporary disposal site for solid waste. One of the key pathways when evaluating the risk of solid waste on human health and the environment is leaching of the pollutants to groundwater. The overall objective of this study is to evaluate the effects of dumping on water quality. A standard method for sample collection was followed. Best analytical techniques were used for the analysis of target parameters with the available facilities in the laboratory. The result for each sample was than compared with WHO, EU, US EPA, and PSQCA guidelines. The parameters for most of the samples were within the permissible limits except for sample number 04, 05, 06. Lead concentration was above the permissible limit in sample numbers 04, 05 and 06. Cadmium was high in sample number 04 and 05. Whereas iron was above the permissible limits in sample numbers 05 and 06. In the remaining samples the Heavy metals concentration is below the permissible limits. The spatial correlation of latitude and longitude with drinking water samples showed that all the parameters were increasing towards the southeast direction, whereas the elevation of the ground surface showed decreasing trend in elevation towards the southeast. So it is observed that open dumping of solid waste does contaminate the groundwater.
