Barlow, Maude. Blue Covenant. New York: The New Press, 2007. Print.
In this excerpt of the book, Blue Covenant, Maude Barlow speaks to how humans are polluting surface waters at an alarming rate. In the last half- century the world is running out of clean water in third world countries at a threatening rate. Ninety percent of water being drained back into surface water such as rivers and lakes in these countries is not going through proper treatment. Barlow explains how seventy-five percent of lake and river’s in India obtain so much pollution they should not be open for human use. Even with the sacred Ganges where millions come to worship is full of pollution. Some even go as far as not taking part in jumping into the river to clean their sins at the religious festival. Barlow finds Africa to be just as bad. Of the twenty-five countries with inadequate water for human consumption, African has nineteen. She points out the Lake Victoria is a place of sewage dumping. She even looks at satellite pictures and sees that 677 major lakes in Africa have deterioration. Maude Barlow is the head of the Council of Canadians, the largest public advocacy organization. She is a founder of Blue Planet Project, and has written sixteen books. She represents herself as someone who is comfortable with being monitored. Her job shows no source of bias since she is on global councils and writes the truth. This chapter of her book is similar to other articles of mine about humans polluting surface waters at an alarming rate.
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.SIRSIssues Researcher. Web. 31 Jan 2012.
Anonymous, . "one Solution to Water Supply Problems Lies in The Rocks." Civil Engineering: Magazine of South African institution of Civil Engineering. 16.6 (2008): 2-4. Web. 9 Feb. 2012. <http://search.proquest.com/docview/221164467?accountid=285>;.
In this trade journal, the author speaks to how the overuse of boreholes causes a drop in the water table in many areas also lowering the water quality. The author expands on how aquifers are being used to enhance the water supply. The author believes using aquifers is a safer and smarted route for enhancing the water supply at far cheaper prices. Knowing that the aquifers won’t be there forever the author then points out that when using the aquifer we as humans must recharge it. When recharging it has to be monitored closely because there could be an over recharge where the water tables rises too much and becomes susceptible to pollution and may exacerbate flooding. The author is anonymous but looks to work in a South African Institution of Civil Engineering. There could be present bias, but it seems to be that the journal is written with facts and observations. This trade journal contradicts with my other sources since this author is recommending for humans to use aquifers. Yet it corresponds to enhancing the water supply for villages and leads to keeping the water supply stable with recharging the aquifers.
Pearce, Fred. When The Rivers Ran Dry: Water—the definition. Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon Press, 2006.
In a chapter of this book, Riding the Water Cycle, Pearce explains the basic water is constantly on the move and may not always be available to us humans. He goes on to say how 97% of the water in the world is salt water which we cannot purify due to high expenses. The rest of the water is fresh water which is divided up into glaciers and ice caps, and liquid water. He states how the greater part of the liquid water is underground in aquifers which are accessible to us for extracting but unless the aquifer is being recharged the water can be depleted to where wells run dry. Fred Pearce is a journalist who assembles small files of press clippings and wrote this book about the ‘journey of discovery on the world’s rivers’ (x).Pearce hopes to answer some pressing questions about the world’s water and is comfortable putting the fasts out in the open for everyone to see. His job shows no source of bias. This book is very similar to some of my other sources, which claim that there is a water crisis due to human consumption or interference.
Ilemobade, Adesola A, J R Adewumi, and J E van Zyl. "Framework for assessing the viability of implementing dual water reticulations systems in South Africa." Water S.A,. 35.2 (2009): n. page. Web. 15 Jan. 2012. http://search.proquest.com/docview/218703632?accountid=285
In this scholarly journal, Ilemobade, Adewumi, and Van Zyl, assess the dual water reticulation systems that have been implemented due to the increasing demands for freshwater. Since groundwater accounts for 2.2% of the total available water in South Africa, the authors agree that the dual water reticulation systems should be used in the arid places of South Africa where there is an uneven amount of surface water. They believe that the way to keep water flowing in arid regions is through the two set of pipes which have potable and non-potable water. The use and recycling of non-potable water is for irrigation purposes, toilet water, and gardens will keep the potable water levels high for human consumption. They use surveys and talk to people in South Africa about their thoughts on the two pipe lines of potable and non-potable water. What they gather is that the most widely accepted options for non-potable water pipe lines are the ones that require the least human contact with the water. These authors all graduated from universities in South Africa and work in the research field as engineers, and focus on water distribution systems. There is no visible bias in this journal. This journal complies with my other articles which claim that the water in Africa is scarce, furthermore actions need to be taken to not over use or run out of water in the South African regions.
The American Geophysical Union issued the following news release: “Groundwater Depletion Rate Accelerating Worldwide,” which focuses on the fast shrinking subterranean reservoirs which humans are pumping from at a fast rate which could dry the underground stores. The American Geophysical Union argues that people aren’t only taking out a great amount of water from the reservoirs, but also putting a large amount into the oceans which accounts for about 25% of the annual sea level rise worldwide. Also adding in that if the groundwater is not replenished we will run into a dilemma that is accompanied by hunger and social unrest. The argument here is very convincing and valid since it is based on hard facts of what is happening to our world today. In the study done by Marc Bierkens team in the Netherlands they use a database of global groundwater information including maps to estimate the rate at which aquifers are drained and added to. The team uses a variety of regions ranging from wetlands to arid regions which ensures all regions are being included in the testing.
The worry of the depletion of water worldwide sets a fearful tone through the article. On the first page the researchers surprisingly find, “the rate at which global groundwater stocks are shrinking has more than doubled between 1960 and 2000, increasing the amount lost from 126 to 283 cubic kilometers(30 to 68 cubic miles) of water per year” (1). This information emphasizes the issue that they are trying to have known. They then use this information to put it into retrospect and share that is this condition was put into place on the Great Lakes, they would be ‘bone-dry’ in about 80 years (1). While the researchers use evidence to back up their word and findings, the total amount of groundwater in the world is unknown and it is not known how fast the global supply of water would die out.
The assumption that the water will eventually vanish is a huge crisis and a debatable topic. While they are right that if humans keep consuming groundwater the way we do we could potentially use up all the reservoirs, they do not discuss the ways in which humans rely on taking up that groundwater to survive. Some people have to use the groundwater from wells because they have no other option for drinking water or for giving their animals water to drink. The people who reside in wealthy nations and places should be watching their water intake compared to the poor villagers who can only take up a certain amount of water from deep down when they really need to for staying alive.
The American Geophysical Union blames humans want for so much water on the depletion. Like their other points since groundwater only represents 30% of the available freshwater on our planet, and the rest of it is locked up in glaciers or the polar ice caps humans need to use water in a more sustainable way to reduce the scarcity of it. Humans can help the world in two ways by doing one thing: by not depleting so much water from underground and then letting it runoff into the oceans which raises the sea level. By educating people on sustainable use of water the subterranean reservoirs will raise and the sea levels will not rise even more than they are with the melting caps.
The American Geophysical Union is right that the underground water reservoirs are diminishing. They even hit at the fact that because of increasing population numbers, we are using a lot of the water for agriculture to feed the population. Educating people on how to reduce their amount of water uses will help to increase our water table and lower our unknown contribution to the sea levels rising. In reality the subterranean reservoirs will keep depleting at an accelerating rate unless humans take action to slow the depletion down.
In chapter seven, ‘The World’s Largest Mass Poisoning,’ in the book, When the Rivers Run Dry, Fred Pearce, the author, argues that UNICEF and other government foundations who try to help and provide the world’s poor with safe water, in fact are making matters worse for the poor villagers. He finds that the villagers living in Hirapur, India around the wells the foundations are digging seem poisoned. Since the surface water they were drinking before the wells was often polluted with sewage that spread many waterborne diseases leading to death, the foundations and villagers assume that the wells will contain safe and drinkable water for them. Pearce argues that after the free agencies digs the wells for the villages they do not check the water to be safe, he listens to the villagers telling him that they did not and do not still keep checking the water. Pearce’s argument is very convincing because it is based on villager’s symptoms that relate straight to certain poisonings right after they start to drink the water from the wells. UNICEF figures that digging deeper under the polluted surface water will fix the unsafe water problems that the villagers are facing; little do they know that nature can also poison water and make it unsafe to drink.
Pearce’s open and sensitive stature leads him to hearing village stories of the town’s residents and their sufferings. He first finds a ten year old boy limping down a muddy path with knocked knees. Talking to some of the villagers he finds out that the boy’s disability is permanent and that he had been poisoned recently. The villager’s share with Pearce, “he had been poisoned by the water in the well at the village school. His bones were grossly deformed by fluoride dissolved in the water” (49). Pearce has no idea what he has found here in the village. Evidently this school well is one of millions around the world designed to provide safe water to the world’s poor. Shatap, the young boy, is also one of millions who is drinking from this well. He and his siblings both show the symptoms of fluoride poisoning from just drinking the water at their school. Pearce hears that Krishna a girl in the village has also been poisoned badly. Pearce shares, “Bowlegged Krishna had given up education because, after being poisoned at her primary school, she couldn’t walk to the secondary school in the next village” (50). Krishna gives up her education to the poison which has consumed her body. Now almost every child in the village had some symptoms of poisoning from the wells.
Fluoride is a major component found in the granite rock that underlines much of India. It slowly dissolves from the bedrock into the groundwater and normally stays around the granite rock. However when the village uses the wells more and more and drains water from them the wells surface water drops lower and closer to the bedrock where the chances of bringing up toxic water increases. A lot of rural India is suffering from fluoride poisoning, but nobody knows exactly how many are. Pearce estimates that around 60 million could be suffering to some degree.
Fluoride poisoning isn’t the only faulty toxicant that seeps into the ground water. Bangladesh has a major source of arsenic underground starting up in the Himalayan Mountains. Pearce explains that at least 12 million backyard tube wells contain arsenic poisoning. The arsenic has been washing down the mountains for millions of years and it accumulating in the floodplains that make up most of Bangladesh. Pearce argues that these floodplains and deltas were fine holding the arsenic and did not harm humans until 30 years ago when humans starting pumping water out of the mud to drink. Pearce blames the British and other government charities such as from the UN agencies, and UNICEF for the thousands of people being poisoned today since they were the ones to dig the 900,000 wells in the first place and not make sure the water was safe for humans. Villagers being informed that they have arsenic poisoning from their drinking wells aren’t too happy either. Pearce describes his talk with one village man who was lashing out, “One villager was angry that international aid had provided such a poisoned chalice and asked about installing a deeper well to bypass the arsenic-bearing water. “I am rich; I can afford it,”” (53). Learning that the wells which his family drinks from is poisoned he wishes to do something, but Pearce already knows it is too late, they have been drinking from this well long enough to know they will all be suffering soon and maybe all even die. Akhtar Ahmad a scientist decides to test the water and finds the water from which the villagers are drinking from contains 500 parts per billion of arsenic, this goes over the Bangladeshi limit and way over the World Health Organization level. Pearce then states that the test for finding contaminants in the water was very cheap, the organizations could have easily tested the water to make sure it was safe.
Millions of rural poor drinking the water from the wells dug by government charities find themselves sick and suffering poisoning symptoms. As much as these agencies are known for helping, as Pearce argues and may be right, they are making matters worse by not following through with the wells they dig and test the water frequently. He believes that the foundation thought the only source of unsafe water was from sewage and pollution, when they forgot that nature can also poison water. Catastrophically, millions of India’s rural poor are sickly poisoned and may die due to lethal concentrations of the toxicants which lie within their only source of drinking water.
Works Cited
Pearce, Fred. When The Rivers Ran Dry: Water—the definition. Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon Press, 2006.
