(and Are They Good For Them), Causes, Effects and Solutions of Marine Habitat Loss and Destruction, 7 Terrible Effects of Industrial Pollution, 25 Amazing Ways to Prevent Water Pollution, How Do Birds Mate? Malaysia also has significant peatland, at 26,685 km2, covering 8.1% of its land area.[17]. Hill, D. (2009). A classical example is liquid petroleum products stored in underground metal or steel tanks. Mechanically raking the plant material into long piles and letting them rot over time, is expensive and slow, and could harbour pests. Indonesia has 265,500 km2 of peatland, which comprises 13.9% of its land area. One method is to use chemicals such as limestone to neutralise the acidity, as well as fertilisers and pesticides. People sometimes dump material waste into water resources including rivers, lakes, canals, and oceans. Likewise, some sewer systems are channeled through underground tubes whereas underground pipelines are used to ferry liquids and gaseous chemical products. This include: Oil is a major water pollutant. These chemicals when mixed up with water cause water pollution and pose serious effects to aquatic ecosystems as they flow down through rivers and lakes to oceans. The haze is largely caused by illegal agricultural fires due to industrial-scale slash-and-burn practices in Indonesia, especially from the provinces of South Sumatra and Riau in Indonesia's … South Asia Environmental Issues. When the Rivers Run Dry: Water – The Defining Crisis of the Twenty-First Century, Beacon Press, Boston. Water shortages, according to Thomas Homer-Dixon, arise in three ways: environmental change (human-induced decline in the quantity or quality of a resource), population growth (reduction in per-capita availability), and unequal distribution (the concentration of resources in the hands of the few).10 Homer-Dixon’s ideas about the relationship between natural resources and social instability have become dangerously simplified in their popularity; the commonly accepted wisdom is that resource scarcity equals resource wars. This can be a problem in marine habitats such as lakes as it can cause algal blooms. Depositing these foreign materials into the water leads to water pollution as they have the capacity to make physical and chemical changes to the water such as discoloration or temperature changes. Which water uses should take priority when demand outstrips supply? PLAY. %PDF-1.5 Like most factories, the factory above is releasing much smoke into the air polluting it. Causes and Challenges of Water Pollution in Southeast Asian Cities The degraded water quality in Metro Manila, Jakarta, and Hanoi that directly affects human security and well-being is primarily due to sociopolitical conditions such as poverty, inequality, and unemployment, among others. These rivers have become extremely polluted over the last few decades as the populations along them have increased. The monetary value of water quality improvements is a useful variable in cost-benefit analyses of water quality-related policies, in both the public and private sectors. The problem with problems of scarcity is not so much lack of water, nor even lack of access to water. Burning wood is a huge contributor to the indoor pollution to the country. Fire is used to clear the plant material left over from logging or old crops. The fires also incur significant firefighting costs and carbon release to the atmosphere. �4���Q[NbCR�-�]��J��ᶻ���G竘����̈T�R_���8��D�$Uq��EƓ. So, too, with the multiple crises of water in India, which are the consequences of a raft of interrelated dynamics on a variety of scales.” 5. As a result, oil spills can extensively harm and kill a marine life because it cuts the supply of dissolved oxygen and prevents light from penetrating into the water. [22], The transboundary Southeast Asian haze has been linked to various cardiovascular conditions including acute ischemic stroke,[23] acute myocardial infarction[24] and cardiac arrest. Leaking Landfills: A landfill site is a site for disposal of waste material by burial. These water resources in Southeast Asia are under intense pressure because of population growth, urbanisation and climate change. The solution then, according to engineers and bureaucrats such as those at the World Bank, lies in increasing water ‘production’, for example through additional water infrastructure that creates a supply-side response to the growing demand.6, Iyer also identifies within India a reluctance to adopt a demand-side approach, despite unheeded lessons from previous mega hydroengineering projects that never delivered.6 But India is not the only country in the region to have developed a knee-jerk supply-side response to the perceived crisis of water scarcity. Causes of Water Pollution. Also, most domestic home toilet wastes are predominantly emptied into underground septic tanks. It is the wicked problem of managing competing interests that is at the crux of the so-called scarcity crisis. Pollution as the Main Cause of Poor Water Quality in Thailand | The Borgen Project Pollution as the Main Cause of Poor Water Quality in Thailand Located in Southeast Asia, Thailand has a population of just over 69 million. Yasmin Rasyid, biologist and President of Ecoknights, stated in a phone interview with The ASEAN Post that the factors of river pollution include “heavy metal pollution and lack of enforcement on the issue of discharges from industries, encroachment of riverbanks and illegal sand mining activities, poor development along riverine areas, discharges of organic and solid waste into waterways.”. Most people would at most experience sneezing, running nose, eye irritation, dry throat and dry cough from the pollutants. However, persons with medical conditions like asthma, chronic lung disease, chronic sinusitis and allergic skin conditions are likely to be more severely affected by the haze and they may experience more severe symptoms. We must therefore pay careful attention to the real and complex issues of water management in South Asia without becoming distracted by the alarmism of manufactured scarcity. Occurrence, Causes and Effects, Disastrous Effects of Water Pollution on Our Environment, LEED Certification: Why Do You Need it and Process to Apply For it, How Can Animals Drink Dirty Water? Islam, S. and L.E. (2010). Pakistan, for instance, has been drilling an increasing number of wells to extract the fossil water from hard-rock aquifers in Balochistan.1 Asia as a whole boasts the world’s most massive plans for exploiting its ‘scarce’ water resources with inter-basin transfer projects.7, These technological fixes should have made the South Asian economies less dependent on water, but that has not happened.1 Economic solutions have had mixed results also. In Southeast Asia, two-thirds of people will be living in urban areas by 2020, concentrated around just five metropolitan areas : … Moreover, it is inequitable distribution or weak governance that is a more certain path to conflict than is scarcity in itself. (AFP Photo/Noel Celis). It is, rather, a problem of prioritising competing interests. In an increasingly unpredictable world, we must secure nature to secure our water, Diverted opportunity: Inequality and what the South-North Water Transfer Project really means for China. As much as the water is treated and cleaned, it cannot be the same as fresh water. 6. The cleaning works involved numerous phases, such as the installation of trash traps, and the upgrading of flood catchment ponds, sewage treatment plant as well as sewerage systems. 4 0 obj Second, water scarcity is not exclusively a phenomenon of nature, but more often than not due to anthropogenic interventions, resulting from bad water management and land use practices.1 Third, decreasing availability of water per se does not automatically lead to conflict. Causes. Pollution is a big problem, especially since it destroys the little water Southwest Asia has left. How can these rivers be recovered and rehabilitated? Causes and effects behind the pollution are similar between these and other rivers in the region. Burning is also cheaper and faster compared to cutting and clearing using excavators or other machines. 5. 21, SC-2003/WS/49. stream Her thesis explores the water interactions between India, Nepal and Bhutan. Water, Sovereignty and Borders in Asia and Oceania, Routledge, New York. [25] These studies found dose-dependent effect of PSI on the risk of development these conditions. Water is the second most polluted environmental resource after air pollution. Alternatively, fire is used to clear the plant material left over from logging. A report published in 2011 stated that more than 30% of peat swamp forests had been converted to agricultural land and a further 30% had been logged or degraded in the past 20 to 30 years. Animal Waste: Animal waste is yet another source of water pollution. Fertilisers are often used in farming, sometimes these fertilisers run-off into nearby water causing an... read more. Emission of huge amount of air pollutants as a result of crop residue burning in South Asian region. Using this car could make a big difference in the air pollution that is caused from automobiles. Haze fires can cause many kinds of damage that are local as well as transboundary. [2][3] The problem flares up every dry season, in varying degrees. Emissions of particulate emissions (PM10) have increased drastically over the past few years making outdoor pollution a lot worse. The fire kills pests and the resulting ash serves to fertilise the soil and neutralise the acidity. To make the soil suitable for agriculture, the pH has to be neutralised and nutrients added. Susskind (2013). The first of these overlooked aspects is that inequalities often shape access to and control over water. Start studying South Asia Environmental Issues. In addition to effective criminal and monetary penalties for illegal burning and liability for fire damage, some policy analysts believe in the potential for economic policy reforms and market-based incentives. Based on the Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability’s Policy Brief report, pollution levels in Metro Manila’s rivers are so high that “they could be considered open sewers.” The main cause is the untreated residential waste that flows directly into the waterbodies. Generally, it is worst between July and October. Global Warming and Water Pollution. 11 terms. How Does Photosynthesis Take Place in Desert Plants? The Marilao river flows through Metro Manila in the Philippines. [8][9], Undisturbed humid tropical forests are considered to be very resistant to fire, experiencing rare fires only during extraordinary dry periods.[10]. There is a prevailing but false and pernicious assumption about water scarcity: the idea that scarcity is a problem of nature or something otherwise extrinsic to human society and management of resources. Paula Hanasz is a PhD candidate at the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University. When asked about what else can governments do to curb this issue and to make the region’s rivers clean again, Yasmin explained that “we need to step up on enforcement and increase the penalty for any violation of the river areas.”. What are the main causes of water pollution? [6][7], Most haze events have resulted from smoke from fires that occurred on peatlands in Sumatra and the Kalimantan region of Borneo island. Log in Sign up. When there is not enough water to go around, bemoaning the ‘not enough’ part of the situation is futile; instead, focus should be placed on sharing what is available in an equitable way.