Subsoil hydro-toxicity causing diarrhoea, cholera, AWD in country: Report

LAHORE: In the last few weeks, a large number of diarrhoea, cholera and acute watery diarrhoea (AWD) cases have been reported in various urban centres of Pakistan, and a research study revealed that hydro-toxicity, the slow and gradual toxification of underground water reservoirs, is the main cause of outbreak of these diseases.

The report, released by SAIRI (Saarc-Asean Interdisciplinary Research Initiative) on Sunday, said that the upsurge of epidemics had caused concerns among local as well as world health experts. The report, prepared by the Asian Post-doctoral P.I. Prof. Dr Aurangzeb Hafi, said that the factors, responsible for outbreak of these diseases, could lead to their recurrence even if the situation was brought under control immediately.

The Communicable Disease Control (CDC) Department Punjab officially reported in the second week of May 2022 that over 2,000 children had been hospitalised with confirmed positive cases of AWD in Lahore since April 1, while over 3,615 cases of cholera were reported in Balochistan. The Pakistan Academy of Family Physicians (PAFP), with 60,000 registered members in Punjab, estimated that 40 per cent of their total patients were diagnosed with diarrhoea ailment. The administration of the government-run Children’s Hospital in Lahore stated that the hospital was attending some 500 children with acute diarrhoea daily.

Normally, the health authorities report diarrhoea, cholera and AWD cases in monsoon season, but surfacing of these cases at such an extent in April-May is, of course, a matter of concern, Prof. Hafi told APP. He said that hydro-toxicity was proving one of the grimmest threats to the upcoming generations of Pakistan. The silent but prime culprit behind the lethal phenomenon of hydro-toxicity is the slow and gradual toxification of the underground water reserves, due to ecologically non-compatible sewerage-drainage system in the country. The epidemic sequels of cholera and polio are directly associated with the impeded setback of sewage system, believes the researcher. Prof. Aurangzeb Hafi was listed among “Top of the Top Ten” by a Britain-based international organisation, the Impact Hallmarks (IH), for his three scientific discoveries in February 2021.

According to the UN statistical records, over 869,000 children under five, die every year due to toxically germ-infested unsafe drinking water — almost 3-4 babies a minute. Countless others undergo sufferings of long-term health consequences. The sewage outlets of the urban areas necessarily do impose a disproportionate and unfair burden on the lands where mostly the poor populations are inhabited. As a result, the soil along with subsoil water reservoirs essentially become inept to shield against the burdens of both the inorganic and organic waste toxicities. In turn, “…eventually and logically, the sources of water allocations for human consumption are left at high stakes…”, cautions the thematic report titled ‘Subsoil Hydro-toxification Indicators’ by SAIRI’s ‘Hydro-De-Tox’ Initiative.

The subsoil hydro-detoxication theme initiator, Dr. Aurangzeb Hafi, said in the report, “Places where people do not have adequate access to water largely coincide with those where toxicity-centred diseases endemics in general, and embryonic-teratogenesis pandemic outbreaks in particular, were threateningly high.”

The SAIRI report takes the issue steps further by embracing a thematic debate highlighting the concerns related to severe contamination of underground water reserves, along with its pandemic outbreaks and life-threatening vector-borne consequences, covering not only the human health perspectives and priority concerns, but of all the biological systems on earth. These systems, both the animal and the plant kingdoms, are being severely affected by the perpetuated multiplex of toxications of the wide-extent practice of prevailing sewage drainage system that is not at all ecologically compatible, neither ‘human rights ethicality or morality-oriented’, nor ‘environmentally sustainable’ by no means, through any measure, warns the multi-disciplinary arch-researcher Prof. Hafi. He is credited for identifying the teratogenic effect of underground water’s contaminations responsible for complex embryonic hydro-toxicity resulting in multiple disabilities at pre-birth stages as well as in the newborns.

The report also mentions the critical role of the non-eco-compatible sewage-drainage systems in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, which are in a multiplication capacity to broaden the terribly worsening situation of particulate matter (PM 2.5, PM 10) in the whole region. The author of SAIRI investigative report, Prof. A. Z. Hafi, has prepared another thematic concept-monologue, which highlights the ever-worsening scenario of particulate matter (PM) in Pakistan and the region and its life-threatening consequences.

The SAIRI report is two-fold and primarily focuses on the multi-causal segment-orbs of pre-birth disabilities due to complex embryonic toxications, comprehensively briefs that ‘how the subject under focus hydro-toxicity matters and why it merits the global attention, in general, and of the policy making hierarchies in particular.

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