Water Pollution as a Global Environmental Problem

Water pollution is an important factor that is playing a role in effecting and destroying the health and lives of many people. People always ignore this fact and is given no importance. As it is a an important problem I choose this topic. One of main cause of polluted water is “Sewage Pollution Ending up in Clean Water Bodies”. Billions of people on Earth are disposing the sewage waste. Only there have been little efforts made on improving global sanitation system. Sewage disposal in clean water bodies affects people’s environments and leads to water-related illnesses such as diarrhea. It is also causing great harm to the marine life which leads to the death of many sea animals. Unfortunately, even in some of the richest countries the dumping of sewage into the sea continues. The problem of sewage disposal does not end there. When you flush your toilet the waste has to go somewhere and even after it leaves the sewage treatment plant there is still waste to dispose of. Mostly the sewage waste is pumped untreated into the sea. Sewage contains all kinds of dangerous chemicals from the pharmaceutical drugs people take to the paper, plastic, and other wastes they flush down their toilets. When people are sick due to viruses, the sewage they produce carries those viruses into the environment. It causes people to catch illnesses such as hepatitis, typhoid, and cholera from river and sea water.

An important issue like this is mostly ignored and they are given less attention due to which water pollution is rapidly increasing. According to 2015 and 2016 from the World Health Organization it was estimated that around 663 million people which is 9 percent of the world’s population don’t have access to safe drinking water and 2.4 billion people which is 40 percent of the world’s population don’t have proper sanitation system a hygienic toilet facilities. These conditions of water kill 525,000 children under five each year. There are many examples of sewage waste dump in seas like for example: In 2012 it was reported that the island of Guernsey was dumping 16,000 tons of sewage in the sea every day and 4.5 million tons of sewage which was contaminated with heavy metals was dump into the seas of United States. Some 20 million people board cruise ships every year. And while they might return to land with fond memories of umbrella drinks and shuffleboard they leave a lot at sea, about a billion gallons which is 3.8 billion liters of sewage.

Other then sewage problem there are other problems as well which cause water pollution. Take oil spills, for example. It can happen if tankers are too poorly built to survive the accidents at sea. But the economic benefit of compromising on tanker quality brings an economic cost when an oil spill occurs. The oil can wash up on nearby beaches which devastate the ecosystem and severely affect tourism. The water is really badly damaged as those oil spills could never finish on their own and it is really difficult job to finish from the whole sea we can also say an expensive job as well. The endangered species of fishes and their lives are really in danger and due to these effects they will one day demolish from this whole world and some are even demolished. Another kind of toxic pollution comes from heavy metals, such as lead, cadmium, and mercury. Lead was once commonly used in gasoline (petrol) even its use is now restricted in some countries. Mercury and cadmium are still used in batteries (though some brands now use other metals). Recently a highly toxic chemical called tributyltin (TBT) was used in paints to protect boats from the ravaging effects of the oceans.TBT was gradually recognized as a pollutant: boats painted with it were doing as much damage to the oceans as the oceans were doing to the boats. The best known example of heavy metal pollution in the oceans happened in 1938 when a Japanese factory discharged a significant amount of mercury metal into Minamata Bay which contaminated the fish stocks there. It took a little time for news to reach that the fish stock was contaminated. By that time many local people had eaten the fish and around 2000 people were poisoned and hundreds of people were left dead or disabled. These are the most common forms of pollution but are also having harmful effects. Heat or thermal pollution from factories and power plants also causes problems in rivers. By raising the temperature it reduces the amount of oxygen dissolved in the water with it, it reduces the level of aquatic life that the river can support. Globally, at least 2 billion people use a drinking water source contaminated with faeces. Contaminated drinking water is estimated to cause 502 000 diarrhoeal deaths each year. The problem of local people is that most of them are careless and without thinking for a minute they through the waste in lakes and rivers which with others also cause harm to them. For example they through their waste of house, after cleaning the house daily.

Every problem is contributing to pollute the water but the biggest problem is “Sewage Pollution in water”. We can stop the waste of industries to reach water bodies and we can also create awareness among people to stop throwing the waste in water but the sewage has a system through which it reaches the water bodies and it is really difficult to stop but it is not impossible. This work is difficult to do but if it will happen then we can live a peaceful life without the pollution disturbing the water and the sustainable development. We cannot even save some water only because we don’t even have enough to drink as most of water is dirty. Making people aware of the problem is the first step to solving it. Anglers who no longer catch so many fish have campaigned for tougher penalties against factories that pour pollution into our rivers causing fishes to die. Greater public awareness can make a positive difference. Pollution discharged by factories in one country with poor environmental standards can cause problems so there must be tougher laws and higher standards. Environmental laws can make it tougher for people to pollute and to make it more effective these laws have to operate across national and international borders. Most environmental experts agree that the best way to tackle pollution is through something called the “polluter pays principle”. This means that whoever causes pollution should have to pay to clean it up, one way or another. Polluter pays can operate in all kinds of ways. It could mean that tanker owners should have to take out insurance that covers the cost of oil spill cleanups, for example. It could also mean that shoppers should have to pay for their plastic grocery bags, as is now common in Ireland, to encourage recycling and minimize waste. From this whole work I learned that life is about choices and so is pollution. We can live with sewage-strewn beaches, dead rivers, and fish that are too poisonous to eat or we can work together to keep the environment clean so the plants, animals, and people who depend on it remain healthy. I think that this work reflected me that we can take individual action to help reduce water pollution, for example, by using environmentally friendly detergents, not pouring oil in drains and reducing pesticides etc…. We can take community action too by helping on beach cleans or litter picks to keep our rivers and seas a little bit cleaner. By working together we can make pollution a very small problem and the world a better place to live.