Fresh water pollution examples. Sources of water pollution

Water pollution

Any actions performed by a person with water lead to a change in both its physical properties (for example, when heated), and chemical composition(in places of industrial drains). Over time, the substances that have fallen into the water are grouped and remain in it already in the same state. The first category includes domestic and most industrial effluents. The second group includes different kinds salts, pesticides, dyes. Let's take a closer look at some of the polluting factors.

Settlements

This is one of the main factors affecting the state of water. Liquid consumption per person per day in America is 750 liters. Of course, this is not the amount that you need to drink. A person consumes water when washing, using it for cooking, using the toilet. The main drain goes to the sewer. At the same time, water pollution increases depending on the number of inhabitants living in the settlement. Each city has its own treatment facilities, in which sewage is cleaned from bacteria and viruses that can seriously harm the human body. The purified liquid is dumped into the rivers. Pollution of water with domestic wastewater is also enhanced because, in addition to bacteria, it contains food residues, soap, paper and other substances that negatively affect its condition.

Industry

Any developed state should have its own plants and factories. This is the largest factor in water pollution. The liquid is used in technological processes, it serves both for cooling and for heating the product, various aqueous solutions used in chemical reactions. More than 50% of all discharges come from the four main consumers of the liquid: oil refineries, steel and blast furnace shops, and the pulp and paper industry. Due to the fact that the disposal of hazardous waste is often an order of magnitude more expensive than their primary treatment, in most cases, along with industrial effluents, a large amount of a wide variety of substances is discharged into water bodies. chemical pollution water leads to a violation of the entire ecological situation in the whole region.

thermal effect

Most power plants operate using steam energy. Water in this case acts as a coolant, after passing through the process, it is simply discharged back into the river. The temperature of the current in such places can rise by several degrees. Such an impact is called thermal water pollution, but there are a number of objections to this term, since in some cases an increase in temperature can lead to an improvement in the environmental situation.

Oil pollution of water

Hydrocarbons are one of the main sources of energy on the entire planet. The collapse of tankers, gusts on oil pipelines form a film on the water surface through which air cannot enter. Spilled substances envelop marine life, which often leads to their death. Both volunteers and special equipment are involved in the elimination of pollution. Water is a life-giving resource. It is she who gives life to almost every creature on our planet. A negligent and irresponsible attitude towards it will lead to the fact that the Earth will simply turn into a desert scorched by the sun. Already, some countries are experiencing water shortages. Of course, there are projects to use the Arctic ice, but the best solution The problem is to reduce overall water pollution.

For a long time, the problem of water pollution was not acute for most countries. The available resources were sufficient to meet the needs of the local population. With the growth of industry, the increase in the amount of water used by man, the situation has changed dramatically. Now the issues of its purification and preservation of quality are being dealt with at the international level.

Methods for determining the degree of pollution

Water pollution is commonly understood as a change in its chemical or physical composition, biological characteristics. This defines restrictions on further use of the resource. The pollution of fresh waters deserves great attention, because their purity is inextricably linked with the quality of life and human health.

In order to determine the state of water, it is measured whole line indicators. Among them:

chromaticity;
degree of turbidity;
smell;
pH level;
the content of heavy metals, trace elements and organic substances;
coli titer;
hydrobiological indicators;
the amount of oxygen dissolved in water;
oxidizability;
the presence of pathogenic microflora;
chemical oxygen demand, etc.

In almost all countries, there are supervisory authorities that must, at certain intervals, depending on the degree of importance of a pond, lake, river, etc., determine the quality from the contents. If deviations are found, the reasons that could provoke water pollution are identified. Then steps are taken to eliminate them.

What causes resource pollution?

There are many reasons that can cause water pollution. It is not always associated with human activities or industrial enterprises. Natural disasters that occur periodically in different areas can also disrupt environmental conditions. The most common reasons are considered to be:

Domestic and industrial waste water. If they do not pass the synthetic cleaning system, chemical elements and organic substances, then, getting into water bodies, they are capable of provoking a water-environmental catastrophe.
Acid rain. This problem is not spoken about so often, so as not to provoke social tension. But the exhaust gases that enter the atmosphere after the emissions of road transport, industrial enterprises, along with rains, end up on the ground, polluting the environment.
Solid waste, which can not only change the state of the biological environment in the reservoir, but also the flow itself. Often this leads to flooding of rivers and lakes, obstruction of the flow.
Organic pollution associated with human activities, natural decomposition of dead animals, plants, etc.
Industrial accidents and man-made disasters.
Floods.
Thermal pollution associated with the production of electricity and other energy. In some cases, water is heated up to 7 degrees, which causes the death of microorganisms, plants and fish, which require a different temperature regime.
Avalanches, mudflows, etc.

In some cases, nature itself is able to clean up water resources over time. But the period of chemical reactions will be long. Most often, the death of inhabitants of reservoirs and pollution of fresh water cannot be prevented without human intervention.

The process of moving pollutants in water

If we are not talking about solid waste, then in all other cases, pollutants can exist:

in a dissolved state;
in a balanced state.

They may be droplets or small particles. Biocontaminants are observed in the form of live microorganisms or viruses.

If solid particles get into the water, they will not necessarily settle to the bottom. Depending on the current, storm events, they are able to rise to the surface. An additional factor is the composition of the water. In the sea, it is almost impossible for such particles to sink to the bottom. As a result of the current, they easily move over long distances.

Experts draw attention to the fact that due to the change in the direction of the current in coastal areas, the level of pollution is traditionally higher.

Regardless of the type of pollutant, it can enter the body of fish that live in a reservoir, or birds that are looking for food in the water. If this does not lead to the direct death of the creature, then it can affect the further food chain. There is a high probability that this is how water pollution poisons people and worsens their health.

The main results of the impact of pollution on the environment

Regardless of whether the pollutant enters the body of a person, fish, animal, a protective reaction is triggered. Some types of toxins can be neutralized by immune cells. In most cases, a living organism needs help in the form of treatment so that the processes do not become serious and do not lead to death.

Scientists determine, depending on the source of pollution and its influence, the following indicators of poisoning:

Genotoxicity. Heavy metals and other trace elements are ways to damage and change the structure of DNA. As a result, serious problems are observed in the development of a living organism, the risk of diseases increases, etc.
Carcinogenicity. The problems of oncology are closely related to what kind of water a person or animals consumes. The danger lies in the fact that a cell, having turned into a cancer cell, is able to quickly regenerate the rest in the body.
neurotoxicity. Many metals, chemicals can affect nervous system. Everyone knows the phenomenon of the release of whales, which is provoked by such pollution. The behavior of sea and river inhabitants becomes inadequate. They are not only able to kill themselves, but also begin to devour those who were previously uninteresting to them. Getting into the human body with water or food from such fish and animals, chemicals can provoke a slowdown in the reaction of the brain, destruction of nerve cells, etc.
Violation of energy exchange. By acting on mitochondrial cells, pollutants are able to change the processes of energy production. As a result, the body ceases to carry out active actions. Lack of energy can cause death.
reproductive insufficiency. If water pollution causes the death of living organisms not so often, then it can affect the state of health in 100 percent of cases. Scientists are especially concerned that their ability to reproduce a new generation is being lost. Solving this genetic problem is not easy. Requires artificial renewal of the aquatic environment.

How does water control and treatment work?

Realizing that pollution of fresh water endangers human existence, government agencies at the national and international levels create requirements for the implementation of enterprises and people's behavior. These frameworks are reflected in the documents regulating the procedures for water control and the operation of purification systems.

There are the following cleaning methods:

Mechanical or primary. Its task is to prevent large objects from entering the reservoirs. To do this, special gratings and filters are installed on the pipes through which the drains go. It is required to clean the pipes in a timely manner, otherwise the blockage can cause an accident.
Specialized. Designed to capture pollutants of a single type. For example, there are traps for fats, oil slicks, flocs, which are deposited with the help of coagulants.
Chemical. It implies that wastewater will be reused in a closed cycle. Therefore, knowing their composition at the outlet, they select chemicals that are able to return water to its original state. Usually this is technical water, not drinking water.
Tertiary cleaning. In order for water to be used in everyday life, agriculture, and in the food industry, its quality must be impeccable. For this, it is processed special formulations or powders capable of retaining heavy metals, harmful microorganisms and other substances in the process of multi-stage filtration.

In everyday life, more and more people are trying to install powerful filters that eliminate pollution caused by old communications and pipes.

Diseases that dirty water can provoke

Until it became clear that pathogens and bacteria can enter the body with water, humanity was faced with global issues. After all, epidemics observed periodically in a particular country claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.

The most common diseases that can lead to bad water, relate:

cholera;
enterovirus;
giardiasis;
schistosomiasis;
amoebiasis;
congenital deformities;
mental anomalies;
intestinal disorders;
gastritis;
skin lesions;
mucous burns;
oncological diseases;
decrease in reproductive function;
endocrine disorders.

The purchase of bottled water and the installation of filters is a means of preventing diseases. Some use silver items, which also partially disinfect the water.

Water pollution has the power to change the planet and make the quality of life completely different. That is why the issue of water conservation is constantly raised by environmental organizations and research centers. This allows you to attract the attention of enterprises, the public, government agencies To existing problems and stimulate the start of active actions to prevent a catastrophe.

Water pollution is serious problem for the ecology of the earth. And it should be solved both on a large scale - at the level of states and enterprises, and on small scales - at the level of each human being. After all, do not forget that the responsibility for the Pacific Garbage Patch lies on the conscience of all those who do not throw garbage in the bin.

Domestic wastewater often contains synthetic detergents that end up in rivers and seas. Clusters inorganic substances affects aquatic life, and reduce the amount of oxygen in the water, which leads to the formation of so-called "dead zones", of which there are already about 400 in the world.

Quite often, industrial effluents containing inorganic and organic wastes descend into rivers and seas. Every year, thousands of chemical substances, whose effect on the environment is not known in advance. Many of them are new compounds. Although industrial effluents are in many cases pre-treated, they still contain toxic substances which are difficult to detect.

acid rain

Acid rain occurs as a result of exhaust gases released by metallurgical enterprises, thermal power plants, oil refineries, as well as other industrial enterprises and road transport into the atmosphere. These gases contain oxides of sulfur and nitrogen, which combine with moisture and oxygen in the air and form sulfuric and nitric acid. These acids then fall to the ground, sometimes many hundreds of kilometers away from the source of the air pollution. In countries such as Canada, the USA, Germany, thousands of rivers and lakes were left without vegetation and fish.

solid waste

If there is a large amount of suspended solids in the water, they make it opaque to sunlight and thus interfere with the process of photosynthesis in water basins. This in turn causes disturbances in the food chain in such pools. In addition, solid waste causes silting up of rivers and shipping channels, resulting in the need for frequent dredging.

oil leak

In the US alone, there are approximately 13,000 oil spills each year. V sea water up to 12 million tons of oil enter annually. In the UK, more than 1 million tons of used engine oil is poured into the sewers every year.

Oil spilled into seawater has many adverse effects on marine life. First of all, birds die: drowning, overheating in the sun or deprived of food. Oil blinds animals living in the water - seals, seals. It reduces the penetration of light into closed water bodies and can increase the temperature of the water.

Uncertain sources

It is often difficult to determine the source of water pollution - it can be an unauthorized release harmful substances enterprise, or pollution caused by agricultural or industrial activities. This leads to water pollution with nitrates, phosphates, toxic heavy metal ions and pesticides.

Thermal water pollution

Thermal water pollution is caused by thermal or nuclear power plants. Thermal pollution is introduced into the surrounding water bodies by waste cooling water. As a result, an increase in water temperature in these reservoirs leads to the acceleration of some biochemical processes in them, as well as to a decrease in the oxygen content dissolved in water. Finely balanced reproduction cycles are disrupted various organisms. In conditions of thermal pollution, as a rule, there is a strong growth of algae, but the extinction of other organisms living in the water.

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The presence of fresh pure water – necessary condition existence of all living organisms on the planet.

The share of fresh water suitable for consumption accounts for only 3% of its total amount.

Despite this, a person in the process of his activity mercilessly pollutes it.

Thus, a very large volume of fresh water has now become completely unusable. A sharp deterioration in the quality of fresh water occurred as a result of contamination with chemical and radioactive substances, pesticides, synthetic fertilizers and sewerage and it's already.

Types of pollution

It is clear that all types of pollution that exist are also present in aquatic environment.

This is quite an extensive list.

In many ways, the solution to the problem of pollution will be .

heavy metals

During the operation of large factories, industrial effluents are discharged into fresh water, the composition of which is replete with various kinds of heavy metals. Many of them, getting into the human body, have a detrimental effect on it, leading to severe poisoning, death. Such substances are called xenobiotics, that is, elements that are alien to a living organism. The class of xenobiotics includes such elements as cadmium, nickel, lead, mercury and many others.

Sources of water pollution by these substances are known. These are, first of all, metallurgical enterprises, automobile plants.

Natural processes on the planet can also contribute to pollution. For example, harmful compounds are found in large quantities in the products of volcanic activity, which from time to time enter lakes, polluting them.

But, of course, the anthropogenic factor is of decisive importance here.

radioactive substances

The development of the nuclear industry has caused significant harm to all life on the planet, including fresh water reservoirs. During the activities of nuclear enterprises, radioactive isotopes are formed, as a result of the decay of which particles with different penetrating abilities (alpha, beta and gamma particles) are released. All of them are capable of causing irreparable harm to living beings, since when they enter the body, these elements damage its cells and contribute to the development of cancer.

Sources of pollution can be:

atmospheric precipitation falling in areas where nuclear tests are carried out;
wastewater discharged into the reservoir by nuclear industry enterprises.
ships operating using nuclear reactors (in case of an accident).

Inorganic pollution

Compounds of toxic chemical elements are considered to be the main inorganic elements that worsen the quality of water in reservoirs. These include toxic metal compounds, alkalis, salts. As a result of the ingress of these substances into the water, its composition changes to be consumed by living organisms.

Sewage is the main source of pollution large enterprises, factories, mines. Some inorganic pollutants enhance their negative properties when in an acidic environment. Thus, acidic wastewater coming from a coal mine carries aluminum, copper, zinc in concentrations that are very dangerous for living organisms.

Every day, a huge amount of water from sewage flows into reservoirs.

Such water contains a lot of pollutants. These are particles of detergents, small remnants of food and household waste, feces. These substances in the process of their decomposition give life to numerous pathogenic microorganisms.

Their entry into the human body can provoke a number of serious illnesses such as dysentery, typhoid fever.

From large cities, such effluents enter rivers and the ocean.

Synthetic fertilizers

Synthetic fertilizers used by humans contain many harmful substances such as nitrates and phosphates. Their entry into the reservoir provokes the excessive growth of a specific blue-green algae. Growing to a huge size, it prevents the development of other plants in the reservoir, while the algae itself cannot serve as food for living organisms that live in the water. All this leads to the disappearance of life in the reservoir and its swamping.

How to solve the problem of water pollution

Of course, there are ways to solve this problem.

It is known that most of the pollutants enter the water bodies together with wastewater from large enterprises. Water purification is one of the ways to solve the problem of water pollution. Business owners should take care to install quality treatment facilities. The presence of such devices, of course, is not capable of completely stopping the release of toxic substances, but they can significantly reduce their concentration.

Also with pollution drinking water help fight household filters who will clean it in the house.

The person himself should take care of the purity of fresh water. Compliance with several simple rules will help to significantly reduce the level of water pollution:

Must be used sparingly tap water.
Avoid getting household waste into sewer system.
Clean up nearby waterways and beaches whenever possible.
Do not use synthetic fertilizers. The best fertilizers are organic household waste, grass clippings, fallen leaves, or compost.
Dispose of discarded trash.

Despite the fact that the problem of water pollution is now reaching alarming proportions, it is quite possible to solve it. To do this, each person must make some efforts, treat nature more carefully.

According to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), about one third of the world's population lives in countries suffering from fresh water scarcity, and in less than 25 years, two thirds of humanity will live in countries with fresh water scarcity. Countries have unequal water potential. But the habit of thinking that Russia is a power with inexhaustible reserves of clean fresh water can do a bad job. The ubiquitous anthropogenic factor is changing the order of things in our rich water resources country. Suffice it to recall Lake Baikal, once the world's largest reservoir of the purest fresh water, or the vast, perhaps the most polluted in Russia, the Volga-Caspian basin.

Water quality problems are no less serious than those of water availability, but relatively little attention has been paid to them. This is especially true for densely populated areas and territories of large industrial enterprises and agricultural complexes.

In Russia in 2003, on average, every fifth or seventh of the studied samples of drinking water did not respond hygiene requirements.

SOURCES OF WATER. ALL INCLUSIVE

Water from natural surface sources is less and less suitable for direct use. Whether it's production goals, Agriculture or human need for drinking water. The reasons are long-term discharge of untreated and undertreated wastewater from industrial and agricultural enterprises, washouts from fields, radioactive contamination, lack of sewerage systems, thermal pollution, etc.

On quality natural sources The state of the atmosphere is also reflected in water, since water bodies are replenished by precipitation, which, unfortunately, carries a significant amount of undesirable dissolved elements.

The main pollutants from surface sources are oil products, phenols, easily oxidizable organic substances, copper and zinc compounds, ammonium and nitrate nitrogen. Some hazardous substances, such as salts of heavy metals, lurk in bottom sediments in stagnant or slow-flowing water bodies and pose a significant threat, especially in the event of a strong drop in water level.

The second half of the last century was marked by the emergence of another major problem of water use. Organic substances, nitrogen and phosphorus, getting into water bodies from fields with residues mineral fertilizers, as well as with municipal wastewater and wastewater from livestock farms cause eutrophication of water bodies.

As a result, in some cases, dirty water cannot enter even into production systems water circulation, it is not suitable for irrigation of agricultural land and, of course, for drinking.

There is a well-known example of the city of Salekhard, which stands at the confluence of the huge Ob River with its large tributary Poluy and is experiencing difficulties with drinking water. The pollution of the river basin with oil products is so strong that tap water is completely unsuitable for drinking, and drinking water is transported around the city in cisterns.

According to the UN, about a third of the world's population uses water from underground sources for drinking. But even this resource is not able to provide us with clean, safe water. Firstly, underground springs- this is a rather heterogeneous class of aquifers and not always artesian. An analysis of only a small number of wells in our country showed that in most of them the water is not suitable for drinking.

As of 1999, UNEP estimated that there were more than 2,700 groundwater sources in Russia classified as contaminated. In densely populated, industrial and agricultural areas, soils can be saturated with toxic substances to such an extent that they have already lost both their filtering and buffering properties.

In addition, the system of underground communications in many areas is not perfect. Difficult to control and, accordingly, unrecoverable leaks, for example from sewer pipes, add problems. All this leads to the fact that all the same unwanted substances penetrate into groundwater.

A SIP. IS IT A LOT OR A LOT?

Total water pollution affects people's health.

According to international experts, in 2000, due to the consumption of poor-quality water, 2 billion people were at risk of contracting malaria (with an approximate constant number of cases of 100 million and an annual death rate from this disease of 1-2 million people).

There are about 4 billion cases of diarrhea and 2.2 million deaths due to diarrhea worldwide every year, which is equivalent to 20 daily major airliner accidents. More than 10% of the population of the developing world is affected by helminthic diseases. About 6 million people have lost their sight due to trachoma. 200 million people suffer from schistosomiasis. Even in relatively prosperous Europe, there are isolated outbreaks of intestinal infections associated with drinking water. Moreover, according to statistics, among those affected by adverse conditions Wednesday, two-thirds are children.

Unfortunately, the quality of drinking water in Russia is unacceptably low. This is often associated with the lag of the country in terms of average life expectancy of the population from other industrialized countries. The cost of risk and loss of public health from the consumption of poor-quality drinking water in Russia as a whole is estimated at about 33.7 billion rubles a year.

In 2003, according to statistical reporting, on average, every fifth to seventh of the studied samples of drinking water from the distribution network did not meet hygienic requirements, including 90% - in terms of organoleptic, 9% - in terms of the content of chemicals that exceeded the MPC on a sanitary and toxicological basis. harmfulness; every ninth sample is microbiological, and more than 60% of the negative samples show a real epidemic danger, since sometimes the level of bacterial contamination is 20 or more times higher than the established standard.

The impact of chemical, as well as radiation, pollution can not always be traced directly. The result of the systematic consumption of low-quality water can affect much later. According to the observations of specialists, chlorides and sulfates affect the gastrointestinal and cardiovascular spheres. An excess of nitrogen and chlorine compounds give complications to the kidneys and liver. Aluminum negatively affects the central and immune systems. Iron contributes to the occurrence of allergic diseases.

"SWIMMING IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN!"

About 30 infectious outbreaks associated with water supply are registered annually.

The unfavorable state of reservoirs has another unpleasant consequence. It becomes unsafe to swim in the water.

Swimming in polluted seas is estimated to cause about 250 million cases of gastroenteritis and upper respiratory disease each year, resulting in an economic loss of US$1.6 billion per year. What can we say about reservoirs of a much smaller size, and even with stagnant water?

It is impossible to lose sight of the "poisoning" of food by water. A well-known example is the level of nitrates in crop products exceeding the established hygienic regulations. They also detect heavy metal salts and radionuclides.

Eating shellfish and crustaceans found in polluted waters is responsible for 2.5 million cases of infectious hepatitis each year. About 25 thousand cases of this disease end in death, the same number - with serious liver damage and long-term loss of working capacity.

According to calculations, the annual impact of such "delicacies" on the health of the world's population is equivalent to 3.2 million person-years of labor lost and costs the world community 10 billion US dollars.

CLEANING PROBLEMS

Water purification remains an urgent task.

Moreover, this task is becoming more difficult day by day: the corresponding engineering structures worn out, cease to meet the requirements of today and technology. The water purification system created decades ago was not designed for modern volumes and the state of the substance being purified. And the fact that the necessary actions to maintain existing system in a functioning state are not produced or produced in insufficient volume, leads to the fact that many elements of the water management complex become threateningly unsafe for the population.

In Russia, approximately 50% of the distributing water supply network is in an emergency or close to that condition, mainly due to corrosion and organic and chemical deposits that saturate the water with unwanted, and sometimes harmful elements.

Sometimes corrosion leads to gaps in pipelines. If such a pipeline is underground, dirt will flow through the holes. All this leads to the fact that the outlet water, even with optimal cleaning, does not meet drinking standards.

At the parliamentary hearings on March 18, 2003 "On the national program for the long-term nature management of the Russian Federation" First Deputy Minister natural resources Nikolai Tarasov, summing up the discussion of the main problems of water management Russian Federation, especially noted the unsatisfactory state of domestic drinking water supply, associated with the low quality of water supplied to the population due to pollution of surface and ground waters, the unsatisfactory condition of water supply networks, and, importantly, insufficient use modern methods drinking water purification.

At a meeting of the Presidium of the State Council of the Russian Federation in the summer of 2003, it was pointed out that the ecological state of many water bodies in the most populated and industrialized regions of Russia is unsatisfactory.

The main rivers: Volga, Don, Kuban, Dnieper, Northern Dvina, Pechora, Ural, Ob, Yenisei, Lena, Kolyma, Amur - are rated as "polluted", in some places - as "very dirty"; large tributaries: Oka, Kama, Tom, Irtysh, Tobol, Miass, Iset, Tura - as "very dirty", and in some places as "extremely dirty". The ecological state of a number of smaller rivers is recognized as catastrophic. Although groundwater, on average, is less polluted than surface water, there is now a tendency towards deterioration of its ecological state.

The sanitary condition of water bodies of the 1st and 2nd categories of water use in Russia remains unsatisfactory. Almost half of the sources of centralized water supply from open reservoirs do not meet sanitary standards. The volume of wastewater discharged into surface water bodies, is more than 55 cubic meters. km, while only 11% undergoes “normative cleaning”.

In 2001, 22% of water samples at water intakes from open reservoirs did not meet hygiene standards on microbiological indicators, and 28% - on chemical ones. The proportion of water samples with the release of pathogens of infectious diseases is increasing; in 2002 it reached almost 1.5%. In the country as a whole, only 1% of the source water from surface sources meets the standards that guarantee the receipt of drinking water of proper quality. 34% of water pipelines with water intake from open reservoirs do not have full complex treatment facilities, and 20% - disinfection plants. Very slow implementation modern technologies water purification, high deterioration of distributing networks remains - up to 60%. In 2001, 19.5% of water samples supplied directly to consumers did not meet hygienic requirements in terms of sanitary and chemical indicators.

The highest indicators of microbial pollution of water bodies of the 1st category are typical for St. Petersburg: 80.3% of standard samples (with the isolation of pathogens of infectious diseases in 12.3%, with an average percentage for the country of 2.27). As a result of the use of poor-quality, contaminated drinking water, from 15 to 30 outbreaks of acute intestinal infections, typhoid fever and viral hepatitis A are recorded annually in the country, with the number of victims up to 2.5-3 thousand people.
www.regnum.ru

DEBT GOOD TURN DESERVES ANOTHER

Any natural system always strives for self-purification. But its resources are still limited. It is not able to “extinguish” too much pollution, especially when it comes to substances not of natural origin, but invented by man. Therefore, in order to avoid problems in the future, it is worth putting a powerful barrier to further poisoning of water sources.

The experience of Western European countries has shown that wastewater treatment can be very effective. So, for example, since the beginning of the 80s of the last century, the discharge of phosphorus into natural water bodies with wastewater from urban wastewater treatment plants has decreased by 50-80%, which has led to a significant decrease in the phosphorus content in many lakes that are “unfavorable” in terms of this indicator.

Unfortunately, Russia has not yet taken tangible steps in creating an effective system for collecting and treating wastewater, and, moreover, by the end of the last century, the discharge of polluted water into rivers increased.

This is especially unfortunate due to the fact that, according to some reports, in general, production in Russia has become more “dirty”. The reason lies in outdated equipment, low-quality raw materials with a high content of harmful substances.

It is clear that at such backward enterprises, water treatment systems are poorly or not functioning at all. There are completely unacceptable cases of discharge of industrial waste directly into water bodies or into the city sewer, which is not suitable for treating such water, which leads to a deterioration in the operation of its purification systems.

The unfavorable trend of aggravation of water-related problems that has been established and established in the last century poses an urgent task for the world community to overcome the crisis. And the search for new, economical ways to purify water, both technical and drinking, is one of the components of the program. necessary action to stabilize the ecological situation.

Interesting Facts:

WHO: One billion people drink dirty water. Experts are sounding the alarm: more than one billion people on Earth drink dirty, unsafe water, and 2.6 billion - almost 40 percent of the world's population - live in unsanitary conditions, reports Reuters.

UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy and experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) indicated in their report that this situation poses the greatest danger to children.

About 1.8 million people die every year from intestinal infections, most of them children under the age of 5, the report says.

The issue is becoming more urgent with reports that in 20 years the amount of water required for food production will increase by a quarter, and many rapidly developing countries will not be able to obtain it without devastating ecosystems.
Agency Mednovosti.ru, 26.08.04

Tsunami2. Infectious diseases are the usual companions of natural disasters. They were noted after the big floods in Sudan in 1980, in West Bengal - in 1998, in Mozambique - in 2000. And in terms of the number of victims, they were comparable to the floods themselves.

The reasons are obvious: after natural disasters, communications and housing are destroyed, masses of people are forced to live crowded in field conditions, water sources and drinking water treatment systems are polluted, local medical services are paralyzed. And aggressive microorganisms that are out of control are just waiting for the opportunity to conquer new spaces. The most dangerous are intestinal infections: dysentery, hepatitis A, cholera, typhoid fever.
T. Bateneva, Izvestia Nauki, 19.01.05

Microbial and viral contamination of drinking water both centralized and non-centralized water supply creates the risk of diseases of the population with intestinal infections, primarily viral hepatitis A.
IA Regions.ru, 25.01.2005