Groundwater pollutants and their impacts on human health and possible remediation approaches: A review

Abstract

Groundwater (GW) is a basic need of humans for sustaining their lives and economic needs. To use water for dietary and domestic needs, permissible limits are needed to be met. In case these standards are not met, that water may cause complications among humans and animals due to the presence of numerous types of contaminants which include heavy metals, organic and inorganic compounds, and microbes. So, to keep water in a state acceptable for drinking, permissible limits for different contaminants are introduced in almost every country. Different organizations devise and regulate the permissible limits and take measures to implement these regulations. These regulatory bodies like Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA), Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR), World Health Organization (WHO), United States Environmental Protection Agency (US-EPA) are responsible for standards formation and implementation. Anthropogenic activities for its high standard living style and development of infrastructure, effluents from industries, and runoff from agriculture are the main causes of water pollution and they have alleviated the standards from their permissible limits because these joins GW through seepage into the soil and spoils GW quality of natural reservoirs. Pakistan is among the countries, which are facing GW deterioration problems due to different harmful effluents from the textile industry, municipal effluents, etc. As most of the population in Pakistan use GW for drinking purposes, therefore, the disease occurs due to contaminated water is high in the country. The present review discusses the current GW quality status of Pakistan, and associated health risks.