Groundwater pollution is the movement of contaminants through the subsurface soil and groundwater. Everywhere we go we have water flowing beneath our feet at a variety of depths and i a variety of strata.
Gdoundwater pollution is more dangerous because as wiki puts it well:
Groundwater pollution is much more difficult to abate than surface pollution because groundwater can move great distances through unseen aquifers. Non-porous aquifers such as clays partially purify water of bacteria by simple filtration (adsorption and absorption), dilution, and, in some cases, chemical reactions and biological activity: however, in some cases, the pollutants merely transform to soil contaminants. Groundwater that moves through cracks and caverns is not filtered and can be transported as easily as surface water. In fact, this can be aggravated by the human tendency to use natural sinkholes as dumps in areas of Karst topography.
Developed nations generally have good controls on controlling and investigating sources of groundwater pollution. However, for developing countries, these issues are not of top priority. For them, the top priority is typically economy. Some third world places with groundwater pollution do not realize they have groundwater pollution or if they do then they don't have the capicity or means to stop it at the source.
As a case study take a look at the sources of drinking water pollution in Pakistan ( all of them explained on the WWF website):
- Muncicpal wastewater
- Industrial
- Agricultural
- Landfill leechate
So as mentioned before the issues are the lack of will, means or sources for third world countries to provide clean drinking water to their population. One way to clean water is to provide clean water downstream by purifying contaminated water but depending on the level of contamination, that may not be possible specially given that the third world lacks techniques to purify water on a large scale and sometimes even on a small scale. However there is good work being done and some charities from the developed world provide downstream solutions. For example:
- Bottle filteration
- Biosand
- A handful of clay, yesterday’s coffee grounds and some cow manure
- and many more
However preventing the pollution at it;s source remains a challenge and sometimes multi national companies are responsible for huge catastrophic disasters in the third world. For example;
Oil companies in Nigeria
Chemical companies in India
and many more ...
Listed below are the 10 most polluted cities in the world in alphabetic order ( surprise surprise-most of these are in the third world):
Chernobyl (Ukraine) | Dzerzinsk (Russia) | Haina (Dominican Republic) | Kabwe (Zambia) | La Oroya (Peru) | Linfen (China) | Mailuu-Suu (Kyrgyzstan) | Norilsk (Russia) | Ranipet (India) | Rudnaya Pristan (Russia)
Lot of work and awareness needs to be spread in the third world about groundwater pollution. however as with other issues political will, resources, technical skills, etc are issues that need to be tackled as well.
You can help by spreading awareness, donating money and writing letters to your local leaders to help reduce pollution in the third world.
LIsted on this page are some useful charities.
2 comments:
Go blog action day!
This is really a worldwide problem, and getting worse every day in industrialized countries, and even in third world countries where industry in starting up, whether it is multi-national or local. The answer is local, however, each community recognizing the problems and fighting to correct it, as you said.
Ya Haqq!
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