Analysis 3: Groundwater Shock

Cassie Bence

Mr. Zarwell

Global Scholars Seminar

February 12, 1012

Pollution in Freshwater

            In his essay “Groundwater shock: The polluting of the World’s major Freshwater Stores,” Payal Sampat focuses on how people believe the major water contamination is surface water, when the dependence on groundwater shows pollution that is worse and irreversible sometimes. He argues that groundwater is very slow to recharging its self where the average recycling time is around 1,400 years. Since the water in aquifers moves through the Earth very slow, pollutants begin to accumulate and can be contaminating the freshwater source for many decades. Thus he believes that this further diminishes our availability to clean fresh water. Sampat also explains how the use of water for irrigated agriculture is the biggest drain on freshwater. Sampat is correct to point irrigation to the largest discharge of freshwater since it accounts for about 70% of the water humans drain from wells each year. He correctly assumes that the threat of Freshwater availability is directly linked to the threat of contaminants and over use or irrigation.

            Sampat’s use of factual and threatening evidence shows that he worries about our capacity of fresh water and if it will always be there. On his second page he reveals how ground water is being tapped in arid regions where there is barely surface water to use, “major aquifers are tapped on every continent, and groundwater is the primary source of drinking eater for more than 1.5 billion people worldwide” (2). A principal reason for the increase in groundwater use is the rise in agriculture. India is doubling its amount of land with irrigation. Sampat explains that the expansion in land pushes for more aquifers to supply now more than half of India with water for irrigation. Similarly Sampat discusses how industries are expanding their use of water. This other source of freshwater depletion is creating ‘competition’ with other, ‘powerful users’ for obtaining the drinking water (2). Sampat realizes that he must overlook the competition among the farmers, factories, and households, because all three are essential to humans even if humans are accounted for the wells that are now polluted with industrial and urban waste.

            Sampat studies how farm runoff is a leading case of groundwater pollution in many parts of India. These non-point or point source pollutants leach through the soil into the freshwater aquifers down below and contaminate them. In Namibia, Africa environmental investors are beginning to build “industrial symbiosis” parks where unusable waste from factories becomes the input of another (9). By offering systems that can decrease the quantities of waste that factories send to landfills, the system protects aquifers where the pollutants leak into. Sampat truly believes this is the system that will save households from water poisoning.

            Sampat is right that agriculture is depleting most of the worlds freshwater. He points out that these farms may not be the best eco-friendly where runoff leaches through the soil and diminishes the amount of clean water available. The aquifers containing pollution from human sources will close to never be available for consumption. Human life will not survive past a certain time period if protection systems are not put up to ensure clean freshwater aquifers.

             

Works Cited

Sampat, Payal. “Groundwater Shock: The Polluting of the World’s Major Freshwater…” World Watch. Jan./Feb.2000:10-22.SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 31 Jan 2012.