How Does the Health of a River Affect a Region?

Do you ever stop to think about where your water is coming from when you turn on the faucet to get a drink? Or maybe when you take a shower? When you're washing your clothes or watering your garden?

Those who live in a city or town, or in close proximity to one, receive their water from public water suppliers. The suppliers obtain water from rivers, lakes, streams and ground water. Approximately 85% of Americans receive public water. The remaining 15% receive their water from wells or other sources.

Before water is distributed to the public, it is sanitized at a treatment plant. The water is filtered and chemicals are added to rid the water of harmful bacteria and other substances. Unfortunately, hundreds of pollutants are found in the water. In charge of enforcing standards of water safety is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Out of the hundreds of pollutants found in the water, the EPA only requires standards for 60. That means that many substances, besides those 60 could still be in our water. Although the water suppliers are aware of these problems, there is a reluctance to update technology because of expense.

So how does the water become polluted in the first place? Basically in two ways: directly and indirectly. Manufacturers dump wastewater directly into rivers, lakes and streams. In many cities and towns, sewage is discarded directly into the water ways. Vessels that use rivers as transportation dump waste directly into the river. Indirect sources include fertilizers and pesticides used by farmers that find their way to water ways through runoff. Oil, gas and other waste that has gathered on city streets wash into sewer drains and end up in rivers.

Pollution in rivers affects us in many ways. As pointed out before, we are using water that comes from rivers, and, although it goes through the cleansing process, we cannot be one hundred percent sure that all of the toxins are being removed. Contaminated water can cause illnesses ranging from gastrointestinal problems to cancer. As pointed out in National Geographic Magazine, "Water can carry some of our most serious diseases - typhoid, dysentery, hepatitis - yet still look clear in the glass."

These problems exist in the United States, Canada and other developed countries who have laws and regulations to keep water safe. They have access to water sanitation technology. But think of the many countries that have very few water safety standards or none at all. The ones who cannot afford, or will not implement, water sanitation facilities.

Everyday in Sao Paulo, Brazil, factories are freely allowed to dump wastewater, containing lead, cadmium and arsenic, into the Tiete River.

Because of waste dumping into nearby waterways from a chemical weapons plant, Dzerzhinsk, Russia made the Guinness Book of World Records as the most chemically polluted city in the world. Chemicals such as dioxin and phenol, two of the deadliest substances in existence, seeped into surface and groundwater. Citizens of the town unknowingly drank the water. They now suffer from health complications such as liver damage, cancer, pulmonary and respiratory problems and reproductive complications. Life expectancy is 45 years. Dr. Maradian, a doctor at the local hospital, says, "The situation is completely catastrophic."

In India, the world's second most populated country, there are few laws to prevent water pollution and the country lacks the money to maintain proper public sanitation. The Centre for Science and Environment estimates that 75% - 80% of the pollution in the Yumana River, which runs through New Delhi, is due to raw sewage. The cities, towns and villages along the Ganges River dump 1.3 billion liters of waste directly into the river every day.

China's industrialization has caused the countries' rivers have become more and more polluted. According to Greenpeace, 40 to 60 billion tons of wastewater is dumped into rivers and lakes every year. Experts say that as industrialization continues to increase in China, the pollution will get worse. Although there are laws and regulations about industrial water pollution, most are ignored by factory managers and not enforced by government officials.

China Daily described the Sushui River, in China's Shaxi province, as "black and smelly...more like a sewage ditch than a river." BBC News reported the stream of Quinshuixi, in the city of Chongquing, China as a "bubbling putrid pool of defecation and chemicals," due to domestic and industrial waste. China's longest river, the Yangtze, is severely polluted from fertilizer runoff from farms and sewage and waste dumped by the thousands of vessels that travel the waterway.

Countries all over the world cannot afford to institute water sanitation programs. The people of these countries are given no choice but to drink the contaminated water and risk getting sick and contracting disease.

Whether you live in the North America, Europe, Asia, Africa or South America, water pollution concerns you. Fresh water makes up a mere 3% of the water on earth, and it is becoming scarce. The water that does remain is becoming more and more polluted and unfit for human use. This is a global crisis. Life cannot be sustained without water. Improving the condition of the Earth's water supply must become a priority. It is literally a matter of life and death.

Sources

Parks, Peggy J. (2007). Water Pollution. Farming Hills, MI: KidHaven Press.

A'o, Lono Kahuna Kupua. (1996). Don't Drink the Water (Without Reading This Book). Pagosa Springs, CO: Kali Press.

Greenpeace.org. Water Pollution Has Become China's Most Urgent Environmental Problem Today. Retrieved January 11, 2009, from http://www.greenpeace.org/china/en/campaigns/toxics/water-pollution.

Gits4U.com. Environmental Pollution in India. Retrieved January 11, 2009, from http://www.gits4u.com/envo/envo4.htm#River%20water%20Pollution.