Water Pollution

Introduction
Water pollution refers to the introduction of foreign material to a water source, often being toxic to
life forms or creating an oxygen demand that deprives organisms of their oxygen requirement. The
right to clean drinking water is today taken for granted, yet its establishment is one of the greatest
challenges to society particularly for developing countries. Today, many large bodies of water
continue to be polluted, posing a significant risk to the life forms that inhabit it, as well as the
populations which use it as their drinking water source. With an increase in industrialisation as well as
they sprawling of urban cities, eutrophication, a decrease in the dissolved oxygen concentration in
water which leads to excess algae production, is becoming increasingly common, due to the addition
of phosphates in water from fertilises and agriculture. The algae deplete the water body of its oxygen,
creating a significant problem for the organisms that inhabit it. Today, it has been estimated that
throughout the world, 1.5 billion people lack safe drinking water, with at least 5 million deaths per
year being attributed to waterborne diseases, demonstrating the very pressing need to address the
problem of water pollution faced by our environment today.

Discussion
Pollution in our waterways comes from various different sources, ranging from thermal pollution,
sewage in the form of leaves and grass clippings, or as runoff from livestock feedlots and pastures, as
well as from construction and logging sites. The effect of such pollution was blatantly demonstrated
during the outbreak of E. coli in the drinking water supplying the towns of Port Douglas and
Mowbray in September, 2008, which caused health problems for a number of residents. To address
this problem, many companies are guided by legislation which forbids them from dumping toxic
waste products into the water. However, a large problem lies in the contaminants that are picked up as
a result of run off from substances such as fertilisers and motor oil picked up as water flows into
drains after rain.

Tom Hopkins is the person I have selected. He is a 36 yrs old male Sales Worker in the Port Kembla
region. The following table shows the census data of the 25-54 yrs of males in the region and the
Sales worker in the region.
Persons characteristics Selected Region % of Total persons in
region
Males 2254 51.6
Age (25-54) 1749 40
Occupation (Sales 189 11.8
worker)
Industry of employment 64 4.0
(Cafe, Restaurant and
takeaways)

Table 1. Figures retrieved from Australian Bureau of Statistics

Tom has completed his High School Qualification till Year 12 and after that he did his advanced
diploma in Sales Management from Tafe. He works as a Sales Executive in a beverage company in
the Port Kembla area. There are around 10 people out of which 6 males who have done a Non School
qualification like Tom in the area of sales. Also, there are around 85 males from the age group of 35-
44 yrs who have completed Year 12 or equivalent in the region.

He is a New Zealander by birth but came to Australia while he was young and is now an Australian
Citizen. According to the census data there are around 36 Males and 33 Females born in New Zealand
living in the Port Kembla area.

Tom takes a lot of interest in the environment surrounding him. He has maintained a really beautiful
and green backyard and likes being near to the nature. When I talked to him I came to know that he
was really concerned about the environmental conditions of the society and really wanted to do
something beneficial for the society. He together with some of his likeminded friends goes to clean
the park in their suburb each Saturday. After analysing his views and thoughts I think Tom can be
assigned the Eco-centric paradigm towards environment. This is because Tom thinks of the whole
society as a big global village and a small part of this vast ecological environment. In this vast global
environment we humans can also be treated as a species who are wholly dependant on the
environment and the eco system itself as without it our existence would be in danger. Human society
is contained in and dependant on the environment. (Wills, 2006, p 51)

The whole ecosystem and economic system is interconnected with each other as we studied in the
Input – Output Microeconomic approach. If we disturb out Physical systems (land, air, water) we
can’t get the input for our economic system or in other words industries. Most of the raw material
comes from our natural resources like Coal, oil, petroleum, wood, minerals and water etc. So if we
start disturbing the physical systems like deforestation or polluting our oceans, rivers and water
system as discussed above we cannot guarantee a stable environment future for our next generations.
Too much consumption by the new generations and a completely unhealthy lifestyle also disturbs the
environment according to the eco-centric approach. The high quantity of fast food consumption and
wastage of food is another big problem in today’s society as it takes a lot of effort and resources to
recycle and make use of it again. Tom thinks that strict environmental laws should be implemented by
the Government to restrict big multinationals and industries to follow environmental friendly
activities and limit their outflow of waste materials into the oceans and our water ways. For example,
in mining industries many industrial processes include heavy metals such as lead, copper and iron that
are released into the water. These metals accumulate in the fish and make them harmful to anyone that
eats them and to the fish itself. Only filtered and processed waste material should be allowed to be
disposed off in water. Eco-centric approach also takes up to limit these industries to a certain
production level to maintain the environment as more production brings our more water being
polluted.

Conclusion
In conclusion to prevent this, it also comes down to the responsibility individual’s feel they have
towards the environment. In addition, thermal pollution in which large quantities of heated water are
released into the water stream is becoming an additional issue that society must battle with. Many
organisms within large bodies of water are temperature sensitive and the introduction of such water is
hazardous. Thus, to prevent the adverse consequences of water pollution, it is imperative that societies
work together to keep water bodies clean and enhance environmental sustainability.
 References

Diagram 1 retrieved from http://oceanworld.tamu.edu/resources/environment-

book/Images/Atmosphere_composition_diagram.jpg, on 10th August 2009

Table1. Figures retrieved from Australian Bureau of Statistics website http://www.abs.gov.au/ on 12th
August 2009

Wills I., (2006), Economics and the Environment, 2nd Edition, Alex & Unwin Publishing Press Inc,
Crows Street, NSW 2065

Wright, Richard T. & Nebel, Bernard J. (2002), Environmental Science: Toward a Sustainable
Future, 8th Edition Prentice-Hall, Inc.
 Appendix

Diagram 1. Water Pollution Cycle