Abstract:
Wah is known for defense production industries. This city was built in 1950 to cater for the population of 50,000, but with the passage of time it became a major industrial city of Pakistan, which is spread over a radius of 15 Km. Due to the rapid growth of industries in Wah and its vicinity, the population has also increased considerably. Increasing industrial activities and population adding different types of pollutants in the air and water bodies, resulting deteriorating the quality of environment. Although the concentration of these pollutants is very low, some of these may have serious environmental implications.
Dharma Kas is the main natural stream which passes through the Wah and collects all the effluents of POFs and finally joins Haro river after passing Wah bridge. People living around this Kas use its water for washing and drinking purposes. Keeping in view its potential damage to user at lower reaches, it was considered imperative to analysis the effect of these effluents on water bodies discharging from different factories of POFs Wah Cantt and the quality of water to be established at Wah bridge.
Thirteen points were selected on the stream for this study and from each point three samples were collected on three different dates. And these samples were analyzed for various water quality parameters like pH, EC, TDS, SS, Cat-ions, an-ions, BOD and COD. Results of our analysis shows that all factory effluents are adding pollution in the water bodies. Pollution level at sampling point 13 (Wah Bridge) is comparatively low because of dilution. However the pollution level at maximum points makes the water unable to drink and placed in the worst category (D)
