Water Pollution. More than one-half of the world's water supply is unfit for drinking

More than one-half of the world's water supply is unfit for drinking. In the United States, at least 40 states have identified their water as polluted, and most East European countries have severe water pollution problems. In Poland alone, one-half of the water supply is already unsafe for drinking, with predictions that by the turn of the century, there will be no water fit to drink.

How did this happen? Our grandparents used to drink from mountain streams, and crystal clean water flowed from the pumps of ground wells all over the world.

Today, the two basic causes of water pollution are industrialization and the human population explosion. Both produce waste products that are often left untreated or are not disposed of quickly enough. Pollutants, the substances that cause pollution, get into our water supply in many different ways and forms, and they cause varying amounts of damage.

Perhaps the most dangerous water pollutants are toxic chemicals, substances that are poisonous to humans and much of the environment. These poisonous substances accumulate and find their way into our water supply, entering the food chain through rivers, lakes, and oceans.

In only one example, on March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez, a massive oil supertanker, struck a reef and leaked millions of gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound off Alaska. The resulting spill covered more than 730 miles of wilderness coastline with crude oil, in places up to three-feet thick. Studies into this oceanic disaster have found damage to the food chain, from the tiniest microorganisms to seals and sea birds that died because their immune systems were weakened, allowing pneumonia and other diseases to kill them. Because of the fragile Arctic environment, effects from this disaster will linger and grow for decades.

Toxic chemicals naturally move through the food chain and end up in human tragedy as well. Between 1953 and 1968, 648 residents of Minamata, Japan, died after consuming seafood contaminated by industrial mercury. Hundreds more continue to suffer from the effects of mercury poisoning, and children are born with both mental and physical deformities. Even today, decades later, seafood from Minamata Bay is still unsafe to eat.

Elsewhere, factories, nuclear facilities, and industrial sites spill untreated chemicals, sewage and waste into streams, rivers, and lakes with regularity. Governments in many countries have failed to enforce pollution control laws because the treatment of such wastes is often expensive. The damage will continue unless there is sufficient public outcry to get laws passed and clean-up enforced.

But not all the water has been fouled by accidents and corporate indifference. Pollution also comes from farmland, residential areas, golf courses, streets, and construction sites. Fertilizers, pesticides, salts and other pollutants trickle into our water supply from sources that can neither be monitored nor easily controlled. Mother's advice to, "Wash that apple before you eat it" is unfortunately not always very good advice any more. Not only may the water itself be suspect, but many pesticides are absorbed by the plant and dispersed throughout its tissues, making it impossible to avoid ingesting them yourself. Pesticides and herbicides are used liberally on lawns, gardens, golf courses, and farmland, and often they end up in both our drinking water and in the farm produce that has been so carefully tended.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-30