SAIRI Report Finds Subsoil Hydro-toxicity Causing Epidemics Outbreak In Pakistan

A research report has found that hydro-toxicity, the slow and gradual toxification of underground water reservoirs, is the main culprit behind outbreak of three epidemics diarrhea, cholera and acute watery diarrhea (AWD) in various parts of Pakistan during the past two, three weeks

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th May, 2022 ) :A research report has found that hydro-toxicity, the slow and gradual toxification of underground water reservoirs, is the main culprit behind outbreak of three epidemics diarrhea, cholera and acute watery diarrhea (AWD) in various parts of Pakistan during the past two, three weeks.

A report, released by SAIRI (Saarc-Asean Interdisciplinary Research Initiative) from the Saarc Secretariat on Tuesday, said that the upsurge of epidemics had attracted the attention of international health authorities and caused concerns among the global health experts.

The report, prepared by the Asian Post-doctoral P.I. Prof. Dr Aurangzeb Hafi, said that the factors, responsible for outbreak of the current epidemics, could lead to their recurrence even if the situation was brought under control immediately.

The Communicable Disease Control (CDC) Department Punjab officially reported last week that over 2,000 children had been hospitalized with confirmed positive cases of the Acute Watery Diarrhea (AWD) in Lahore since April 1, whilst 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 diarrhea ailment. The administration of the government-run Children's Hospital in Lahore stated that the hospital was attending some 500 children with acute diarrhea daily.

Keeping aside the element of under-reporting and concealing of real statistics, the above figures of the Punjab's capital Lahore have been provided by the public sector teaching hospitals alone, while the cases reported in private healthcare facilities could be many times more than the statistics provided by the CDC.

Normally, health authorities report diarrhea, cholera and AWD cases in monsoon season, but surfacing of these cases up to such an extent in April-May is, of course, a serious concern, Prof. Hafi tells APP by telephone. He says that hydro-toxicity is 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 Pakistan. The recurrence 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), over 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 over 3-4 babies a minute. Countless others fall in serious 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 wastes' toxicities imposed thereupon, due to being incapable of bearing and processing the disproportionate and unfair toxic burden. In turn, "...eventually and logically, the sources of water allocations for human consumption are left on 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 SAIRI's indications report, "Places where people do not have adequate access to water largely coincide with those where toxicity-centerd 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 foremostly 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 most contributive 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 evidence-based 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.