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The Menace Of #Water Pollution

In some #African countries where oil is produced on a very large scale, Nigeria, for instance, environmental and human rights activist organizations at non-governmental level have taken the initiative within their framework and capacity to curb and fight against oil spills in water bodies in rural communities, where oil exploration and drilling activities are and have been at its peak. These human rights and non-profit organizations whose actions have been geared towards curbing the excesses of environmental pollution and degradation, have been able to a minute extent ensure clean up of these oil polluted areas, and seek compensation and also reparation for the affected indigenes and defunct communities. Nevertheless, despite these measures adopted in these regions, the gruesome effects of oil #pollution can still be seen and felt. The indigenes have been forced to evacuate and abandon these coastal regions because they can no longer farm their lands for food and fish their rivers for fish and other marine edibles.
 Still, in nearly every part of the world, water pollution has reached a dangerous level. In #China, for example, rapid industrialization has turned China’s economy into one of the largest in the world. The Chinese government has however, put in place strict environmental measures to help eradicate environmental pollution which also includes #water pollution. In Holland, The Rhine River is called the “sewer of Europe”. By the time the River reaches the Dutch Coast it is already 20 percent sewage and industrial waste. The Iset River in Russia is constantly ever loaded with volatile industrial wastes. Also, The Cuyahoga River in Ohio, United States, is also constantly loaded with the same.
In cases of #regions and #cities like India, Brazil, and other Latin American countries, of both the developed and most especially the developing nations where urbanization is intensifying as a result of rural-urban migration patterns, which is people moving from the country or villages to the big towns and cities, in search of better living conditions and employment opportunities,  the population growth is explosive and the problem of waste disposal automatically intensifies. Lakes and rivers like all other ecosystems have built in waste disposal mechanisms which work very efficiently as long as they are not overloaded. Too much sewage can cause excess nutrients in surface waters, and this process of enriching waters with nutrients is eutrophication. This is a natural process which occurs in a River or lake. A young lake for instance, is relatively clear. But over a period of thousands of years, nutrients naturally collect and the lake becomes rich in animal and plant life. After a long period of time, there is an over abundance of nutrients; plants die and decay, oxygen is used up. Without oxygen, fish die. Thus, adding to the accumulation of decaying matter. Slowly, the lake turns into a swamp. Hence, man can also speed up this eutrophication process by dumping too much sewage into the water.

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