Desalination Water Treatment Project

District Rajanpur situated in southern Punjab. The Rajanpur district comprises around 541 villages (mouza) and is situated among the major towns of Rahim Yar Khan, Kashmoor and Dera Ghazi Khan. The west side of district Rajanpur is located with areas of Balochistan (District Derra Bughti) and the whole area is plain and hilly both. These mountains are the part of a range of Koh Suleman. The sided area is called tribal area and in term of local people called Pachaadh. The population is predominantly rural with the largest town being on the bank side of Indus river, some populated areas situated on the main road that runs through the centre of the District.

The environment is generally dry for most of the year and no major industry is present in the locality. The main source of drinking water is groundwater, canal water and rainwater. The canal water or rainwater is collected in open mud made ponds locally called “Tobbas”. The 70% underground water is brackish and saline. The main reason for brackish water is hill torrents flood from Koh Suleman mountains range.

At least 0.7 million people in Rajanpur have no access to clean drinking water, according to a report by the Water Testing Lab.

A test, which was conducted two months ago, revealed that the city’s underground water is getting mixed with sewerage water because 70% of the water becomes contaminated.

Even floodwater gets mixed with this contaminated water, said Dr Imran Qamar, the in-charge of the lab. The city’s sole filtration plant has broken down making the lives of people more difficult.

“Our inefficient sewerage system is a big reason for the pollution of water,” the doctor claimed.

People from the area claim that there’s no water in the Dajal Canal and the water underground is undrinkable. 

“The water we consume is from nearby ponds and it is contaminated as well. This water exposes us to several diseases,” a person complained. 

“Water is a basic need. It is a matter of life and death,” one of the locals said.

In Pachad Town, there is a severe shortage and people have no other option than to drink water from contaminated ponds, they claimed.

As a result, locals have been diagnosed with different diseases such as muscle slackening, nausea, diarrhea, skin cancer, weak joints, dental fluorosis, and other abdominal diseases, according to health professionals. Locals have asked the authorities to install water schemes and filtration plants that will give them access to clean drinking water.

For the provision of clean and drinkable water two sources may be adopted.

1. Water Supply Schemes
2. Reverse Osmosis (RO) Filtration Plant

The water supply scheme is a vast project with its structure. In this project, water is transported through pipelines from the sweet zone to the brackish water zone. It takes a lot of technical expert team for execution and maintenance. A big-budget is required for this project. So it is not favourable with limited resources.

If we study the installation of Reverse Osmosis (RO) Filtration Plant is a conveniently feasible project with limited resources. The water obtained from this plant is safe for drinking. Its installation and maintenance are easy. So RO filtration Plant is recommended with its feasibility.

The best place for installation of the RO Filtration plant is the Mosque or Madrassa as to avoid the building expenditures, electricity connection charges and security concerns. For the operation and maintenance of the plant, a local committee will be constituted from the same area. The committee consists of one chairman, one finance secretary and two other active members. An affidavit bond will be signed with the committee that they will operate and maintain the Plant properly on regular basis. Otherwise, the plant will be shifted to other places on deviation from the bond. To maintain the water quality, the plant will be inspected on monthly basis.

There are different types of RO plants with their production of water. The RO plants convert the brackish water into sweet drinkable water by decreasing the salts with its treatment technology. For verification, the underground raw water and after treatment production water will be tested from Public Health Department Water Testing Laboratory.