Abstract
Balochistan is a semi-arid region. The assessment of water quality is very important, as the majority of people depend on groundwater for drinking purposes. The present study involves the quality assessment and mapping of drinking water in the five selected major coal mining sites in the four districts of Balochistan. A total of 50 samples were collected from these five coal mining sites in two seasons: i.e., summer and winter. A physicochemical analysis was carried out for groundwater samples: i.e., pH, electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solid (TDS), CO3, HCO3-, Cl-, Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, Cd, Cr, Co, Cu, Fe, Pb, Mn, Hg, Ni, and Zn. Thematic maps were used to depict the spatial distribution of significant variables and were compared with WHO standards (2011) during both seasons. The majority of parameters crossed the safe permissible limit of WHO standards. The water quality index (WQI) was calculated for the whole monitoring data obtained from both seasons from the perspective of drinking water in each of the selected sites. Moreover, a principle component analysis (PCA) and correlation matrix was carried out for the data analysis in order to identify the source of pollution and correlation among the variables. The results suggested that the overall quality of water from the selected coal mining sites deteriorated due to the overexploitation of coal mines and mining activity. The current investigation provides a comprehensive picture of the current status of water quality in and around the selected coal mines of Balochistan.
Highlights
The large coal deposits scattered across Pakistan are known to have about 185,175 million tons [1]
The results from the current study suggested that the deterioration of drinking water is influenced by natural—as well anthropogenic—activities around the coal mines of Balochistan
A successful evaluation for groundwater quality in the five selected coal mining sites scattered across the four districts of Balochistan was accomplished through the analysis of physicochemical parameters in two seasons
Summary
The large coal deposits scattered across Pakistan are known to have about 185,175 million tons [1]. These coal reserves are of different ranks, among which, 97% are of lignite rank [2]. The types of coal from different regions of Pakistan vary from low rank lignite coal to high rank volatile bituminous coal [3]. The main coalfields are Deragi, Sor-Range, Chamalang, Duki, Harnai, Khost, Sharagh, Mach, and Ziarat. The present research covered coal mine fields in Chamalang, Duki, Harnai, Sharagh, and Khost: the four districts of the province. The coal of Balochistan is found to be classified into two types according to its ranks—i.e., sub-bituminous to bituminous—with a considerable heating value that ranges from 9637 to 15,499 Btu/lb
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