- Water thoughis abundant on the earth’s surface, only 1% of it is fit for consumption byliving beings, which makes it a limited resource. Water bodies like oceans andseas are home to large biodiversity, which is an important part of ourecosystems that we cannot afford to lose if we want to survive. The increasingpopulation, rapid and unplanned urbanization and industrialization, and risingstandards of living has put aggressive pressure on our water resources. Thejudicious use of water resource is the need of the hour.
Beforewe can start to work towards how to reduce water pollution or how to prevent water pollution, we need to understand what water pollution is.It can be easily understood as contamination of oceans, seas, lakes, rivers,and groundwater. According to some sources, most polluted river in the worldis the Citarum River, Indonesia. According to this source, two of Indian rivers (Ganges and Yamuna) are among the top 12 mostpolluted rivers of the world which marks the Indian river pollution as one of the most gravestconcerns against water bodies.
The causes of water pollutionare numerous including sewage discharge, industrial wastage, e-waste, andhousehold wastes that are being pumped into our water resources. It is easy tolose sight of why and how to conserve water or ourlimited resources in general, during the time of any crisis. I am sure we can all recall, during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, images of rivers choked with biomedical waste comingin from around the world. However, keeping the prevention and control of waterpollution should always be at the top of our prioritybecause riversare our lifelines, and an integral part of our civilization – to say the least. At a large scale, saving water translates into saving energy and money. Thus,it is not just important but necessary that we must learn how can we prevent waterpollution and howto conserve water. Something thisurgent and critical can easily become overwhelming. That’s why we bring to you5 easy wayshow to prevent water pollution.
Five Ways Howto Prevent Water Pollution
1.Plastic waste management: It is truly challenging to decompose plasticafter it is created. A significant part of the plastic that we use daily windsup in the river water, where it is much harder to fish out and securely discard. The plasticsbreak down into microplastics, which is harder to segregate or filtrate fromthe water sources. It also ends up in inour food chain, as microplastic accumulates in fishes and the crops irrigatedwith the water. It is said that every human has about a credit card worth ofmicroplastics present in the body, due to the accumulation. Hence, we need tomanage the plastic waste so that it does not end up in our water sources.
2.Reuse Water: We can re- use water that has been secreted as waste from our waterfilters and Reverse Osmosis (RO) systems. Collect the water from the filtrationsystem and it can be used to wash clothes, washing utensils, washing the cars,cleaning and flushing the toilets, and cleaning the house.
3.Try not to dispose of cooking oil in the kitchen sink: While nothing bad can be saidabout eating oils in your food or applying them on your body, it is anill-conceived notion to discard oil, fat and involved cooking oil in the sinkor down the channel. The oil gets accumulated in the drainage pipes and createsproblem in wastewater treatment plants. The cooking oil is also harmful for theaquatic life, as it floats above the surface and blocks oxygen from beingdissolved in water. It is smarter to discard oils in the trash or gather allyour overabundant oil in one jug and afterward discard that.
4.Solid waste management and Waste segregation: distribute your waste as drywaste and wet waste or as biodegradable and non-biodegradable. The wet wastewhich mostly comes from kitchen can be processed and used as manure for plants,which is more beneficial than chemical fertilizers. The dry waste can berecycled at the recycling factories, so that it does not end up on landfillsites and pollute This leads to less waste being accumulated on the landfills,and less seepage into the underground and surface water channels.
5. E-waste Management: While disposing of yourhousehold electronics, dispose it through proper sources, so that they do notend up in landfill sites. The metals used in electronic devices are harmful forthe environment and can leak through the ground into underground water channelsand can be washed with rains into the surface water.
The need tocontrol water pollutantsand saving water isthe concern the needs to be dealt with utmost urgency. Sashakt Foundation has been continuously working towardssustainable development and prevention and control of water pollution is one ofthe main aims of our programmes. We work in the areas of solid wastemanagement, kitchen waste management and model village programme (where wetrain the villagers in handling and disposing waste). One of our largest Climate Change andEnvironment Programme is Paryavaran Yoddha, where we work to reformschool students towards a better environmental tomorrow. As part of thisprogramme, the team primarily works by forming Eco Clubs in schools and spreadingawareness about climate change through them. The Eco Clubs facilitate peereducation and community capacity building. Students and teachers in the schoolare trained in concepts around this topic and allow them the knowledge andcapacity to train more people around them.
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