Essence of Life
Hello everyone! Welcome to this week’s blog post. For this week, the theme is water pollution. Coincidentally, Professor David Taylor (our module coordinator), mentioned the effects of Arsenic exposure in water sources. In the research article, it was also discovered that chronic exposure to Arsenic in water causes ill-health (Argos et al., 2010; Pan et al.,2013).
The availability of clean water is one of the biggest challenges today, with 30% of the world lacking access to potable water, resulting in the deaths of around 1000 children daily (UNSDG, n.d.). Additionally, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG) stipulated Clean Water and Sanitation as its sixth goal. This further emphasises the importance of water pollution prevention on the global scale. With that in mind, let us dive deeper into what water pollution is about!
Types of Water Pollutants
The first thought that comes to mind when talking about water pollution would be rubbish such as plastics. However, water pollutants may not always be visible. Most water pollutants are either too small for us to see with our naked eyes, such as pharmaceuticals and pathogens, or things we cannot see, such as temperature.
Source: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/yishun-dam-shoreline-cleared-of-rubbish-and-plastic-waste-after-4-day-clean-up
In the case of plastic pollution, it can range from a plastic bottle being disposed carelessly at a beach to microplastics as a result of improper treatment of industrial waste. To learn more about plastic pollution, you can head to this blog that was run by a fellow BES student.
On the other hand, untreated chemicals can range from fertiliser runoff from farms to the improper disposal of cooking oil (Ka, Sa, & AYa, 2013).
Source: https://www.nrdc.org/stories/water-pollution-everything-you-need-know
Effects of Water Pollution
Water pollution also brings about direct and indirect impacts to the environment.
For example, the direct impacts of water pollution can include adverse health effects such as water poisoning that can result in disease and death (Hill, 2010). While it may seem that developed countries are immune to the risks of water pollution due to advances in technology for water treatment, it is always prudent to prevent water pollution to ensure equity for all. This is nicely illustrated by a quote from Benjamin Franklin:
“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.” ― Benjamin Franklin
As for indirect impacts, these include loss of biodiversity due to bioaccumulation and biomagnification of pathogens and chemicals (Kelly, Ikonomou, Blair, Morin, & Gobas, 2007). If you would like to know more about biodiversity, you can look up Naomi’s (a fellow course mate) blog here!
Defining Water Pollution
Given the diverse nature of water pollutants in terms of their effects and types, it is essential that an all-encompassing definition is used. As such, we will define water pollution as:
“The introduction of physical, chemical or biological contaminant(s) that cause(s) or result(s) in the decreased ability of a water body to provide benefits”.
In our next post, we will analyse and understand how the Singapore government define water pollution under their laws.
Stay tuned!
Ryan
References
Argos, M., Kalra, T., Rathouz, P. J., Chen, Y., Pierce, B., Parvez, F., . . . Hasan, R. (2010). Arsenic exposure from drinking water, and all-cause and chronic-disease mortalities in Bangladesh (HEALS): a prospective cohort study. The Lancet, 376(9737), 252-258.
Hill, M. K. (2010). Understanding Environmental Pollution: Cambridge University Press.
Ka, H., Sa, K., & AYa, T. (2013). The management of waste cooking oil: a preliminary survey. Health and Environ J, 4, 76-81.
Kelly, B. C., Ikonomou, M. G., Blair, J. D., Morin, A. E., & Gobas, F. A. (2007). Food web–specific biomagnification of persistent organic pollutants. science, 317(5835), 236-239.
Pan, W.-C., Seow, W. J., Kile, M. L., Hoffman, E. B., Quamruzzaman, Q., Rahman, M., . . . Christiani, D. C. (2013). Association of low to moderate levels of arsenic exposure with risk of type 2 diabetes in Bangladesh. American journal of epidemiology, 178(10), 1563-1570.
UNSDG. (n.d.). Goal 6: Ensure access to water and sanitation for all. Sustainable Development Goals. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/water-and-sanitation/