emerging issues

The Effects of Industrial Pollution on Ecosystems and Human Well-Being

Exploring the links between ecosystems and human well-being, this article looks at the effects of industrial pollution on water quality and their impacts. Informed by a recent UNEP report Clearing the Waters: A focus on water quality solutions, released on World Water Day, 22 March, 2010, and also by other UN reports, the article highlights pathways to arrive at the sustainable management of human activities and processes within ecosystems, for improved water quality globally. Humans are dependent upon ecosystem services such as air, water, food, and for provision of materials for development and construction. While the importance of ecosystems and their services cannot be underestimated, a wide range of human and natural processes have altered the way they function, eroding their capacity to deliver these vital ecosystem services for human well-being. Water is vital for life, but also supports ecosystems, e.g. inland water ecosystems
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that provide a multitude of services, inof our time, threatening the stability and cluding water, fish, habitat, cultural and prosperity of the human population, and aesthetic values, and flood prevention, and hindering efforts aimed at: growth, social also supports non-consumptive on-stream and economic development, the eradication uses such as navigation. Although freshwaof extreme poverty and equity all essenter ecosystems comprise tial for achieving the Milless than 1 per cent of the Lack of eective management lennium Development planets surface, some 12 of water resources that ensures Goals (MDGs). While per cent of described spesustainable availability of many countries focus on cies live in freshwater and addressing problems of water remains the biggest more than 25 per cent of hunger and malnutrition, challenge of our time. the worlds described verwater quality continues tebrate species depend on freshwater ecoto be degraded worsening per capita water systems at some point in their lifecycle. In availability. Governments still struggle in recent years, the biodiversity of freshwater their endeavour to ensure equitable and ecosystems has been degraded more than sustainable access to adequate quantities any other ecosystem, including tropical of water, of acceptable quality for human rainforests (MA , 2005b). and environmental uses today, more than The significance of biodiversity in an ever before. Water is linked to the multiple ecosystem and complex interrelations with challenges of climate change, energy and other components determines the structure food supplies and prices, and troubled fiand productivity of ecosystems, as well as nancial markets. contributing to their functionality. Poor water quality has many economic costs associated with it, including degradaWater and development tion of ecosystem services; health-related Lack of effective management of water recosts; impacts on economic activities such sources that ensures sustainable availabilas agriculture, industrial production, and ity of water remains the biggest challenge tourism; increased water treatment costs;

Photo: Jimmy Mohlin

the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger (WWAP, 2009). When water resources of acceptable quality can no longer be provided in sustainable quantities, the outcome can be overexploitation of aquatic ecosystems as people draw more for storage purposes, with the ultimate losers being the ecosystems and organisms (including humans) dependent on them for survival and well-being. While conventional water management has mainly focused on water quantity, poor water quality has an impact on the quantity of water available to man in a number of ways. Worldwide, unsafe or inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene cause approximately 1.7 million deaths a year (WHO, 2002). While the majority of the health threats posed by poor water quality is the result of microbial contaminants and subsequent disease in developing countries, the historical and current use of chemicals for industrial and agricultural purposes along with the chemical byproducts of waste management and emerging toxic pollutants are also compromising water quality, leading to other, serious health problems for wildlife and humans around the world. Degraded water that cannot be used for drinking, industry, or agriculture effectively reduces the amount of water available, directly impacting water quantity.
Human activities and global water quality

domestic sewage, industrial effluents and atmospheric inputs. Pressures emanating from population growth, urbanisation, globalisation of trade, consumption patterns, increasing energy demands, growing waste quantities, economic growth, and climate change pose an immediate danger to the current situation.
Industrial pollution

and reduced property values. Worldwide, waterborne diseases are among the leading killers of children under five years old and more people die from unsafe water annually than from all forms of violence, including war (WHO, 2002). Countries with an infant mortality rate (IMR) between 50 and 100 per 1,000 live births enjoyed annual average growth of 3.7 per cent per year, whereas similarly poor countries with an IMR greater than 150 had average growth of only 0.1 per cent per year (Sachs, 2001).
Water and human well-being

Water scarcity is globally significant and is an accelerating condition for 12 billion people worldwide (MA , 2005a), leading to problems with food production, human health, and economic development. Although water is essential for achieving sustainable development and the Millennium Development Goals, its supply is conditioned by other factors, which amplify the patterns of abundance and scarcity e.g. population dynamics, patterns of demand, climate variations, and water quality. Water is linked not only to goal 7, but also affects the achievement of all MDGs, including,

Human development actions have resulted in the destruction of wetlands, diminishing their capacity to prevent floods, filter water pollutants, regulate climate, among others, as they result in simplified systems and reduce their intrinsic resilience to change. Increasing impacts on water and ecosystems may result partly from ignorance of human development actions on the environment, and an inadequate understanding of ecosystem values. Aquatic ecosystems have long been used as a medium for transporting and disposing of human, agricultural, and industrial wastes, discharged directly or indirectly into the water courses. More than 80 per cent of sewage in developing countries is discharged untreated, polluting rivers, lakes and coastal areas (WWAP, 2009) and remains far from satisfactory even in some developed countries. Pollutants including microbes, nutrients, heavy metals, organic chemicals, oil and sediments; heat, which raises the temperature of the receiving water, are typically the cause of major water quality degradation around the world. Major nutrient sources to ecosystems include agricultural runoff,

Industrial activities are a significant and growing cause of poor water quality. Industry and energy production use account for nearly 20 per cent of total global water withdrawals, and this water is typically returned to its source in a degraded condition. While industrial production can affect water quality, industrial production can also be negatively impacted by poor water quality. Water is critical to many industrial processes, such as heating and cooling, generating steam, and cleaning, and as a constituent part of some products, such as beverages. Poor quality water may force an industrial facility to relocate, find a new source of water, or halt production, or it may decrease the quality of the product. Even though no estimates exist on worldwide costs of poor water quality to industry, a study in China estimated that the industrial income lost due to water pollution amounted to USD 1.7 billion in 1992 alone (SIWI, 2005). Much of industrial wastewater is discharged without treatment to open watercourses, reducing the quality of larger volumes of water and sometimes infiltrating aquifers and contaminating groundwater resources. Worldwide, it is estimated that industry is responsible for dumping 300-400 million tons of heavy metals, solvents, toxic sludge, and other waste into waters each year (UNEP, 2010). While significant progress has been made in many developed nations to reduce direct discharges of pollutants into water bodies, more than 70 per cent of industrial wastes in developing countries are dumped untreated into waters (UN-Water Statistics). Industrial pollutants often alter broad water quality characteristics, such as temperature, acidity, salinity, or turbidity of receiving waters, leading to altered ecosystems and higher incidence of water-borne diseases. Impacts can be heightened by the synergistic combination of contaminants affecting species communities and structures, wildlife habitats, biodiversity, degradation of other environmental services, and in decreased productivity and simplification of trophic webs. Industrial pollution is expected to increase in emerging market economies with economic and industrial development. In9

emerging issues
dustries based on organic raw materials are the largest contributors of organic pollution, while oil, steel and mining industries represent the major risk for heavy metal release. Heavy metals from industrial discharges can accumulate in the tissues of humans and other organisms. ergistic interactions of multiple chemicals and toxins.
Opportunities and mechanisms for overcoming challenges

Solving water quality problems requires strategies to prevent, treat, and remediate water pollution. As a first-order intervenThe water quality crisis tion, pollution can be prevented before it Despite improvements in some regions, waenters waterways; second, wastewater can ter pollution is on the rise globally. Unless be treated before it is discharged; and third, substantial progress is made in regulation the biological integrity of polluted waterand enforcement, pollution is expected to courses can be physically restored through increase, especially in developing counremediation. Preventing pollution at its tries, as a result of economic development source is often the cheapest, easiest, and driven by urbanisation, most effective way to intensive agriculture sys- Strategies to implement water protect water quality. tems, and a migration In the industrial setting quality improvements will of industries to emergrequire awareness building, pollution prevention is ing market economies, most commonly known where they benefit from increased monitoring, and better as cleaner production. governance and regulation. Because industrial revarious incentives, less stringent environmental leases are fixed sources, regulations, and where environmental safethey are often regulated. If efforts to prevent pollution from enguards for effluent treatment are less well established or enforced. tering water sources are ineffective or insufAn emerging water quality concern is ficient, mechanisms to treat the water for the impact of personal care products and reuse or before discharge should be underpharmaceuticals, such as birth control taken. When industrial wastewater cannot pills, painkillers and antibiotics, on aquatbe prevented or recycled on-site, it needs ic ecosystems. Little is known about their to be treated before disposal. Standards long-term human or ecosystem impacts, for industrial effluent quality are in place although some are believed to mimic natuin many parts of the world, but in many ral hormones in humans and other species. places are not adequate or appropriately Urban wastewater constitutes a significant enforced. In cases where the industrial efpollution load and is particularly hazardfluent water quality is severely degraded or ous when mixed with untreated industrial toxic, the industrial facility owner should waste as ecosystem responses to industrial be responsible for safely removing pollutpollutants may be complex due to the synants from the water before discharge and

appropriately disposing of the hazardous sludge. Recognition of anthropogenic impacts on ecosystems has grown dramatically and there have been increasing numbers of efforts to restore degraded habitats and ecosystems worldwide. The key to effective restoration efforts is a clear identification of existing conditions and problems in the target resource. Investing in ecosystem maintenance and restoration can yield better water quality results while saving on costs and therefore a significant incentive for industry to invest in watershed management, which is by far more cost-effective. Strategies to implement water quality improvements will require awareness building, increased monitoring, and better governance and regulation. Education and awareness building efforts will build public support and political will to implement water quality improvements. Increased monitoring and data collection will help focus more attention on the problems of water quality and evaluate the effectiveness of solutions. Governance and regulation will create policies, laws, and regulations to protect and improve water quality, strengthen enforcement, and provide financing for implementation. There are both technological tools and approaches for meeting water quality goals and non-physical approaches such as pricing, economic incentives, and legal/regulatory tools. A combination of these solutions will enable us to meet the broadest possible range of human and ecosystem needs. Regulations that establish water quality standards also need to develop funding streams, through public revenue, fines, and/ or polluter-pays assessments to finance adequate enforcement. Polluter-pays principles need to be implemented so that activities that release pollution into waterways internalise the costs of pollution instead of socialising the costs and impacts. This is a particularly effective mechanism that can be applied in dealing with industrial pollution. The decisions made in the next decade will determine the path we take in addressing the global water quality challenge. Directing local, national, and international priorities, funding, and policies to improve water quality can ensure that our global water resources can once again become a source of life.
Thomas Chiramba, a water resources management expert, heads the Freshwater Ecosystems Unit in the Division of Environmental Policy Implementation, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP); Peter Manyara is an assistant programme ofcer in the Freshwater Ecosystems Unit
Photo: Dima V/SXC

An emerging water quality concern is the impact of pharmaceuticals, such as birth control pills, painkillers and antibiotics, on aquatic ecosystems. Little is known about their long-term human or ecosystem impacts.
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