Ways To Clean And Restore Our Waters

So I've been mentioning how our country and many other countries are going through a water crisis, and how the world's water are getting polluted due to Industrial agriculture, habitat modification, and hydro- modification. Now I will talk about what  we humans can do to prevent further damages to our waters and hope that we can create a better future for our kids.

According to Rita Putatanda, she states that toxic products like paints, automobile oil, polishes, and cleaning products should be stored and disposed off properly. As a matter of fact, it is better to use non-toxic, products for the house as far as possible. Also, never dispose off such products by throwing them into your toilet or sink states Rita. She also states the following:

• Dispose off your trash in a proper manner and try and incorporate the recycling habit as far as possible. Non-degradable products like tampons, sanitary napkins, and diapers should not be flushed down the toilet, for these can end up damaging the process of sewage treatment, and usually end up as litter on beaches.
• Refrain from throwing litter into streams, lakes, rivers, or seas. If you do spot litter on beaches or in water systems, after ascertaining that it is safe, collect them and dispose off them in any nearby waste disposal system.
• Try using environmentally friendly household products like toiletries, soap-based household cleaning material, and washing powder as far as possible.
• Try using natural fertilizers and pesticides as far as possible, or if not, do not overuse them or over-water gardens and lawns. This will help in reducing the pollutants that get into water systems due to runoffs.
• Automobile oil should be re-used as far as possible. Also, it is important to keep your automobile well maintained in order to prevent leakages of toxic fluids like antifreeze and oil.
• Also, actively conserve water by turning the tap off when you do not need running water, such as while brushing teeth. Apart from preventing water shortages, it lessens the amount of water that needs to be treated.

By doing the following, we will be able to conserve and clean our water. There will also be a good chance that our water supply will last longer for the future generations to use, and our environment will be a better place for the rest of us.

Putatunda, Rita. "Ways to Prevent Water Pollution." Buzzle. N.p., 2011. Web. 21 Mar 2011. <http://www.buzzle.com/articles/ways-to-prevent-water-pollution.html>.

A Great Thirst For Water

 With our waters getting polluted at a accelerated rate, we need to conserve and clean them as good as we possibly can.

Water water everywhere, yet ironically only a small percentage of water are good for drinking. One of the biggest problem's in today's world is now water.What might seem like a small problem will turn out to be a big war against other countries for the need of water for their native people.  Big countries such as India, and China are now experiencing water crises.

India which is the largest, fastest growing country in the world is now currently lacking access to drinking water. India currently has the world’s second largest population, which is expected to overtake China’s by 2050 when it reaches a staggering 1.6 billion, putting increase strain on water resources as the number of people grows (Brooks 2007). With the economy and agricultural sector growing rapidly, it even thins out the water supply (Brooks 2007).  According to Brooks, India's water crisis is a man made problem.  For example, due to the poor management, unclear laws, government corruption, and industrial and human waste, it has caused their water supply to become useless.  A combination of sewage disposal, industrial effluents, chemicals from farm runoffs, arsenic and fluoride has rendered India’s rivers unfit for drinking, irrigation, and even industrial purposes states Brooks. Surprisingly every river in India is polluted to some degree.

China, which is currently the country that has the most population right now is undergoing a water crises.
According to the Chifeng's hydrological bureau, 62 percent of the city's 51 reservoirs have run dry, Xinhua said and more than 250,000 people are short on drinking water. Beijing's water shortage will soon reach 200 million to 300 million cubic meters, and while aggressively building more dams to conserve their water, countries below them are angry and desperate for water also. Across the country, China has spent tens of billions of dollars to dam rivers, build reservoirs and dig deeper wells. Beijing also has tapped underground water to meet its needs, with the water level in the plains falling to 11 meters to 24 meters below sea level over the past decade, according to Xinhua. Without any change, tens of millions of Chinese will turn into environmental refugees over the next decade states the World Bank.

With the water crises going on in the third world countries, there are many other countries that were not mentioned here that are also going through the water crises also. To know what India and China is going through, it's really important to start finding solutions before other countries such as Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam who are under China breaks out a war to fight for their rights for their water. The shortage of water will be one the biggest and hardest problem to fix.

Brooks, Nina. "Imminent Water Crisis in India." arlingtoninstitute. N.p., 08/2007. Web. 21 Mar 2011. <http://www.arlingtoninstitute.org/wbp/global-water-crisis/606>.

Brooks, Nina. "Water shortages reach crisis levels in China." CNN World. N.p., 09/13/2010. Web. 21 Mar 2011. <http://articles.cnn.com/2010-09-13/world/china.water.crisis_1_water-shortages-water-supplies-drinking-water?_s=PM:WORLD>.

How Does Water Get Polluted

 Water is the most essential to human beings, and with the population increasing there is a demand for water. But with more people there is also more water pollution.

Water is everywhere around us, and although it may look clean and clear, you'll be surprise to know that it maybe toxic or polluted. Water is an essential thing for human beings to have everyday, but if our lakes, drinking waters, rivers and lakes are polluted or not available for us to drink and use, it will also not be in good use for everything that depends on it too such as sea creatures, plants, soil, and many other things. So how does water get polluted?

Industrial agriculture is one of the leading causes of water pollution in the United States today. In the 2000 National Water Quality Inventory conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), agricultural activity was identified as a source of pollution for 48% of stream and river water, and for 41% of lake water. According to the website Sustainable Table, most water population results from animal waste which in most industrial farms are store in large tanks call the "lagoon" that can hold up to millions of gallons of animal manure and urine. The lagoons may leak or rupture when a storm occurs, and since raw manure are 160 times more toxic than raw municipal, it'll be dangerous if it leaks into underground water states Sustainable Table. Leaking lagoons releases antibiotic residues and harmful bacteria which can make anyone who drinks the water sick or die. Another leading cause of water pollution is hydro-modification.

Hydromodification that alters the flow of water is the second leading source of damage to U.S. rivers, streams, and lakes. Examples of hydromodification are channelization, dredging, and construction of dams according to Rank. Rank states that excess sediments due to erosion caused by projects such as building dams can clog fishes gills and suffocate eggs. He goes further in details that sediments may also carry other pollutants such as mercury which can poison many living organisms that depends on the water. Next, the third leading cause of water pollution is habitat modification.

Habitat modification occurs when the vegetation along stream banks is removed, diminishing buffers that help filter runoff and provide shade for the adjacent water body states Rank. Without the vegetation that helps shade the stream banks, the water temperature are usually higher and an increase in quantity and velocity of runoff makes it harder for living organisms that lives underwater to survive. Habitat modification may also kill  many animals that may depend on their natural habitat to live and survive, and with habitat modification occurring frequently these days to better the human society, it will soon affect us too.

Here I showed you three of the leading causes of water pollution. Beside these three, there are still hundreds of ways how water can get polluted. To decrease our chances of having many water pollutions in our country and other countries, we can make a difference picking up trash that floats upon the water and shores, educate people about water pollutions, and voice your thoughts and ideas to our government.


Rank, J. "Nonpoint Source Pollution ." Pollution issues. N.p., 2011. Web. 21 Mar 2011. <http://www.pollutionissues.com/Na-Ph/Nonpoint-Source-Pollution.html>.

"Water pollution." Sustainable Table. N.p., 2011. Web. 21 Mar 2011. <http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/waterpollution/>.

Human Population Equals Shortage In Water

 With people overfishing, people are also over using water from lakes, rivers, and oceans. Without sustainable water for sea creatures to live and reproduce, humans will struggle with sea food and shortage of water.

With more people added each day in our world, it means more uses of the water that the world provides for us. With our human population increasing the underdeveloped countries are hit the hardest. Countries such as Russia, Asia, and Africa are some parts of the world where it is hard to find adequate clean water due to the increase of people, water pollution, and diseases.

For the last 50 years according to the Population Reference Bureau, world population multiplied more rapidly than ever before, and more rapidly than it is projected to grow in the future. In 1950, the world had 2.5 billion people; and in 2010, the world had about 7 billion people. By 2050, this number could rise to more than 9 billion. With our population increasing so rapidly alot of people are worried if the world has enough water for everyone especially in the countries where clean water is hard to find.

According to Calvin Woo, there are about 1,385 cubic kilometers on Earth which most of it is salt. Calvin states that about 70% of the fresh edible water are locked inside polar ice caps, and .014% are available for drinking which is a very small amount compared to our oceans. With the human population still growing strong, our water resources will soon decline if we don't conserve or try to use less of it. With other countries such as Africa with little or no clean water, they suffer tremendously that affects their health.

In Africa, about 1/3 of the population has no drinking water and almost half of the population have health problems due to unsanitary water or little water according to E-Source. Some of the health problems that may occur due to little or no water are, dehydration, malnutrition, diseases, and diarrhea which all these may cause death. If the problem does not improved, 17 countries will suffer from severe water shortage by the year 2010 states E-Source.   

In conclusion, the human population is starting to over populate and will still increase through out the decades. With so many people on earth, there are only a limited of water sources for each person to use and to survive. If there are too much people and little water, countries and people will start to fight and have wars with each other to have the water for themselves. Therefore it is important now to start conserving water and help clean our environment so it does not pollute the lakes, rivers, and oceans, and hopefully the future generations will have a chance of a better life.

"E-Source." Africa: one-third of Africans lack drinking water. N.p., 03/06/2006. Web. 12 Mar 2011.

Woo, Calvin. "How Much human life can planet earth sustain?." About my Planet. N.p., 09/23/2006.            Web. 20 Mar 2011.

Major Decline Of Fishes In The Sea

 As the Armor fishes develop over time and reproduce, we can see that humans are overfishing to the point that soon enough we will run out of food from the sea.

About the world population depends on seafood for their survival, yet sea creatures and fishes depends on us to reduce our appetite for their chance to populate. More than thousands of years ago, our ancestors had learned to fish to feed for themselves and their family. They've also taught the future generations to fish in order to live and survive. Now in the 21st century, we had gotten a lot better at fishing that we might just have declined our seafood supply.

According to Sheridan, big fishes such as tuna, cod, and groupers have declined worldwide by tho-thirds while the number of anchovies, sardines and capelin has surged in their absence, said University of British Columbia researchers (2011). Meanwhile, people around the world are fishing harder and coming up with the same or fewer numbers in their catch, indicating that humans may have maxed out the ocean's capacity to provide us with food (Sheridan 2011).

Researchers has concluded that in the past 40 years, about 54% of the population of fishes has declined tremendously, and if we keep fishing how we still are, in the next 40 years there may be no  fishes to feed the world population (Sheridan 2011). About 50% of the increase in the world's fish consumption for food comes from Eastern Asia, and about 42% of the increase is coming from China itself (Sheridan 2011). To protect us from over fishing the government has to set limits on how many a fisherman can fish, and the government is depending on scientist to figure that out.

So basically what the scientist do is they catch a few fishes and put a tag on them. Than in a week they go back to the same area and catch a few more fishes and tag them like they did the other ones. The following week they go back to the same area and observe how many fishes that they have tagged. So if there were 200 fishes and there were at least 10 that had been tagged, they'll assume that if there were another 200 fishes there would be another 10 fishes that will have tags on them.
They can then estimate that there are about four hundred fish living in that habitat according to the website

"Counting the fish in the sea."
By using up our supply of fishes, in the next 40 years or so, there will not be enough fishes for the next generation to feed for themselves and their families. Its also important to keep in mind that when there is a decline or shortage of certain fishes in the sea, it may also affect other fishes or sea creatures who depends and feed off them too. So if one species of fish disappear, many fishes and sea creatures will surely disappear afterward too.

Sheridan, Kerry. "Fewer big fish in the sea, scientists say ." dailytelegraph.com. N.p., 02/19/2011. Web. 5 May 2011. <http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/breaking-news/fewer-big-fish-in-the-sea-scientists-say/story-e6freuyi-1226008507172>.

"Counting the fish in the sea." www.neaq.org. New England Aquariam, 02/19/2011. Web. 5 May 2011. <http://www.neaq.org/education_and_activities/games_and_activities/activities/counting_the_fish_in_the_sea.php>.