Earth Sciences Pakistan (ESP)

Urban regions have a critical issue of solid management waste because of its high growing rate of production. Untreated solid waste had caused many diseases in human beings like cholera, yellow fever and dengue fever. Windrow composting for food waste including bio-degradable and recyclable nature were checked for different compositions of food waste. Food waste composting by aerobically was carried out at South East Asian institute of Sciences, UAF. Three different windrows were reinforced with treatments of tap water, sewage water and microbial spray. Aerobic composting required different temperature tolerating microbes to complete the composting process. The analysis have been done in laboratory for many compost effecting parameters. Results showed that organic content analysis have better for composting of food waste. Three composting windrows were developed with three different treatments T1, T2 and T3 for food waste. Windrows were treated with sewerage water, tap water and effective microbial spray using specifically food waste. The compost of food waste prepared by the treatment of microbial spray was found better than the two treatments as having pH 8.63, organic content 68.91%, moisture content 28.09%, carbon 32.38%, nitrogen 0.67%, Phosphorous 1.3% and potassium 0.81%. Physical and chemical characteristics of compost has been analyzed, presented and transformed in graphs to check the relevance in all the composting parameters throughout the three composting piles of waste like M.C, Temperature, pH, O.C, C, N, P, K.

In the last several years, Pakistan has faced great challenges and serious threat from extensive natural disasters such as earthquake, landslide and flood. Different disaster management strategies, policies and technological based systems have been utilized in disaster, pre-disaster and post disaster to diminish its effects on surrounding and human life. The analysis of disaster pattern plays vital role in crisis management, disaster response and evacuation planning. It increases public awareness about disasters and also improve both planning and investigation. In this study, different disasters (Earthquake, flood and landslide) are analyzed and observed historical record of sixteen years (2000-2016) in Pakistan and also focus on comparative study of these disasters with their neighbor countries. The occurrences of different disasters and their impacts on human life have been analyzed. Secondary objective is the comparative analysis of different disasters, their occurrence, death and total affected victim of Pakistan with their neighbor countries. The analyzed outcome patterns can be helpful in pre disaster, disaster and post-disaster activities to trim down lives losses, economical losses and damages due to the occurrences of disasters.

This work describes the energy requirements for water supply and sewerage management of Faisalabad urban area and additionally suggests energy management improvements by incorporating grid connected renewable Photo- Voltaic (PV) based power generation. As the ground water in Faisalabad is mostly saline, Water and Sanitation Agency Faisalabad (WASA FSD) brings water from nearby soft water sources and pumps them to consumers within the city. To maintain water supply and sewerage disposal operations, WASA FSD requires to purchase 40k to 50k USD worth of electricity monthly from Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (FESCO) which is financially burdening for WASA. Additionally, as this energy demand is met from Pakistan’s already strained national grid, there is a need to better manage Agency’s energy requirements. In this work, we study utilization of an On-Grid PV solution for renewable power generation to meet the agency’s requirement of are 3.238 ×106 electricity units per month. Such systems can, in principle, eliminate dependency of WASA on the National Grid and additionally provide WASA with an energy efficient and sustainable power generation system with low environmental impact. In this paper, simulate a solar energy system without any energy storage system to determine its feasibility. Here, we present simulation results to estimate successfulness of such a project. Additionally, financial and technical aspects of the project have also been discussed suggesting a payback period less than 7 years.

In order to maintain an optimal management method of desert rangelands with high heritage value, there is a need of basic knowledge for the flora of the area under study. For this purpose, sampling was carried out from fenced and un-fenced areas in Dera ghazi khan (Pakistan). Qualitative and quantitative analysis of vegetation were performed. Total number of families and their respective species were recorded. Among quantitative parameters relative frequency and importance value were calculated in the area covered with wire net fence and the open area. Data were analysed statistically. Results showed affected plants species richness as well as soil composition. Fencing proved to be a beneficial management to maintain species diversity. The result indicated significant difference in fenced and unfenced areas. Edaphic factors of both study sites also differed significantly. This difference can be attributed to grazing disturbance, and if managed properly, they can prove a valuable source for livestock with sustainable features.

Pakistan being an agricultural country greatly depends on the water. Intense agriculture and ever-increasing population growth have created stress on the limited water resources of the country. Therefore, use of industrial discharge effluent and sewage water for irrigation is a common practice. Realizing the situation of safe disposal of wastewater in Pattoki to minimize the public risks of indiscriminate disposal of wastewater, Punjab government and Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) constructed a wastewater treatment plant at Pattoki district Kasur. The purpose of this study is to check the efficiency of wastewater being treated by the treatment plant in compliance with the National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS) and to check the efficiency of functional components of treatment plant. Water samples were collected from various points of the treatment plant in order to perform various onsite and laboratory test (DO, BOD5, COD, Chloride, TSS, and PH) to check the efficiency of the wastewater treatment plant. The results obtained for each water quality parameters (physical, chemical, and biological) were compared with National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS). The recommended value of DO was greater than 2 mg/liter, BOD5, COD, Chlorides, TSS and PH by PEQS were less than 80 mg/liter, 150 mg/liter, 1000 mg/liter, 150 mg/liter and 6.5-9 respectively. The measured values of DO, BOD5, COD, Chlorides, TSS and PH were 0.3 mg/liter, 310 mg/liter, 48 mg/liter, 1760 mg/liter, 204 mg/liter and 8.3 respectively. The values of DO, BOD5 and TSS are not within PEQS recommended range. More facultative and anaerobic ponds should be constructed in order to treat total wastewater generated in Pattoki, as present plant is treating almost one fourth of total wastewater generated in Pattoki. Aerators should be provided at the aerobic ponds for improving the efficiency of wastewater treatment plant. Effluent from the treatment plant can be used for floriculture conjunctively with fresh water. Moreover, the concentration of physio-chemical parameters in the effluent also decreases after mixing the water available in drain. To some extent it also reduces the infiltration of dangerous components (as drain is not lined with concrete) present in wastewater that may contaminate the ground water or may have hazardous effects on quality of soil present in field. However, further studies are required to evaluate chemical parameters or heavy metals like arsenic, fluorides, chromium, zinc etc.

This paper deals with new information on paleontology and stratigraphy of eighteen Pakistanian Paleogene foraminiferal species and its paleogeographic distribution in the Tethyan Middle East. These species are: Tritaxia elongata, T. limbata, Siphogaudryina daviesi, S. elongata, Textularia sp. (=T. farafraensis, T. punjabensis, Pseudoclavulina pseudohumilis (=P.farafraensis), Globanomalina ovalis (=G. luxorensis, Fursenkoina dubia, Sakhiella nammalensis, Valvulineria nammalensis, Discorbis globiformis, Cibicidoides grandis, C. nammalensis, Rectoeponides dubia (=Karreria fallax), Ornatanomalina hafeezi and Pararotalia khirthari. One of the illustrated species is believed to be new: Nonionella haquei Anan, n. sp. Detailed study of rich and well preserved Pakistanian taxa were introduced by Haque made it possible to correlate them with those previously identified species in the coeval sequence in different Middle East and other Tethyan localities.

Water is an important factor of life for all living organisms and it is now deteriorated very rapidly due to industrial effluents, municipal and agriculture waste leaching down the groundwater. The percolation of water through the deposits of limestone and chalk which are largely made up of calcium and magnesium carbonates increases the mineral contents. So, the presence of high mineral contents creates water hardness. Water hardness is mainly occurring by the existence of calcium and magnesium, their high concentration in water makes water hard which cause several hazardous impacts on human life. Therefore, certain concentration standard limits have been fixed by different organizations. According to WHO 500 mg/l is allowable limit for water hardness. So regular use of high concentration of Calcium and magnesium ions above standard limits is causing real problems for human beings and environment. In daily routine life different harmful incidence occurs due to hard water. To overcome this problem water softening is a technique that serves the removal of cations which are most likely the hardness factors are calcium and magnesium. Water softening is the most useful technique to remove hardness. Therefore, a water softener is developed for domestic purpose. As the development of an optimum water softener was very essential for domestic use. The water softener can have performed efficiently with a hardness range of 1000-1200 mg/l and TDS may be up to 1500mg/l. The water softener plant is also cost efficient that have almost one-time production cost and very low maintenance and running cost. After the manufacturing of water softening plant hardness, pH, DO, TDS and EC is calculated to check its efficiency. The hardness, TDS and conductivity reduces after passing the sample water through the sample, DO was increased to little extent and pH was remained in a specific range.

Our environment is comprised of land, air and water, which shows symmetry and balance. Any kind of intervention in the constituents of the environment causes environmental pollution. Noise pollution is the result of one of these effects. It is associated with type/density of noise producing source and its distance. The present study was taken up to investigate the effect of noise pollution on the health of local community. The study was carried out to estimate the increased noise levels at two sites in Faisalabad, namely Canal Park located near the roadside (98 FT) in the form of narrow strip, and the Site-2 Gat Wala Park located (368 ft) away from the main road, and study of its impacts on health of coming visitors. It is concluded from the study that the Visitors were satisfied with the peaceful and calm environment of Site-2 Gat Walla Park while they were unsatisfied with site-1 Canal Park due to its noisy environment. Moreover, the distance of parks from the main road in addition to some other factors like, road and vehicles conditions, density of traffic etc. has adverse impact upon parks environment as well as health of visitors coming in the parks.

The quality of borehole waters in Abakaliki metropolis, Ebonyi State, Nigeria was assessed for six months. The study was designed to focus on the impacts of some mineral elements and poor sanitary system on the water quality. pH, conductivity and TDS were measured in situ while Calcium ion, Magnesium ion, Lead concentration and total coliform count were determined in the laboratory using standard methods. The results showed that mean pH (6.20) was lowest at Aguogboriga in the wet period while mean conductivity (805.00 µS cm-1) and TDS (402.00 mg L-1) were highest at Kpirikpiri in the dry season. Highest mean concentrations of Calcium ion (84.17 mg L-1) and Magnesium ion (149.37 mg L-1) were recorded in the wet period at Amasiri street. Mean Lead concentration (0.35 mg L-1) was highest at Brakenbury in the dry period and total coliform (24 CFU ml-1) at Amasiri street in the wet period. The study revealed that pH, Calcium ion, Magnesium ion, Lead (Pb) level and total coliform count were above the WHO acceptable standard for drinking water at some of the study locations. The target cancer risk (TR) calculated for Pb showed the possibility that individual might develop cancer over time of exposure. So, proper survey should be carried out before siting boreholes to reduce point source pollution.

Integrated geophysical techniques involving magnetic and radiometric data were used to investigate the subsurface geometry of Igarra schist belt in Precambrian basement complex of southwestern Nigeria which falls within the latitude range of 7° 1635.6” to 7° 1736.0’ North and longitude range of 6° 0534.1” to 6°05’44”East, with a view to interpret the geology of part of Igarra schist belt and estimate the depth to basement of magnetic source in the area. Six profiles were established with the objective of delineating the metasediments and its structural attributes, and geophysical measurements were made at 5m intervals along these profiles. The results of magnetic datasets were presented as maps and profiles of varying magnetic intensities and the causative rock types. Qualitative interpretation of the magnetic data using Reduction to pole, Analytical signal, first vertical, horizontal and tilt derivatives, upward continuation filters shows what has been interpreted as the signature of a near-vertical fault, trending along a NE-SW and NW-SE direction while radiometric datasets gave geochemical rates of U, Th and K as well as the effect of water contents on the rocks present within the study area. Qualitative and quantitative interpretation of individual magnetic anomalies and geological knowledge of the survey area yielded information on the depth of the geological features (e.g. rock contact, faults or fractures), structure and magnetic properties of rock units. 3D Euler deconvolution and Average radial spectrum were adopted to estimate the depth of the magnetic sources which ranges from – 92.895m to 73.95m; -115.45m to 57.44m and 63m to 44.1m; 88.2m to 81.9 m respectively. The Igarra schist belt has evolved different episodes of orogenies and the metasediments were formed from low grade regional metamorphism of argillaceous sediments such as shales or sediments of varying composition.