Water Pollution In South Africa Case Study

FRESHWATER POLLUTION IN SOUTH AFRICA STUDENT NO: 51585200

MODULE CODE: CEC 3701

ASSIGNMENT NO: 6

UNIQUE NO: 787980

PLAGIARISM DECLARATION

I declare that all the information on this assignment is my own work, I did not copy from other students, I as well included all the reference I used.

FRESHWATER POLLUTION IN SOUTH AFRICA

-Freshwater is common pool natural resource for which everyone is responsible. It is highly delicate and vulnerable to pollution and contamination. In South Africa it has been established that freshwater quality of the available sources has declined due to increased pollution caused by industry, urbanisation, afforestation, mining, agriculture and power generation (Ashton et.al 2008) The major waste and

Agriculture

*Increases soil erosion due to the physical distribution of soil and vegetation due to ploughing, overgrazing, logging and road building.

*Increases nutrients due to fertilisers and excreta, which contribute worrying amounts of nitrates and phosphates to water supplies *Increased pesticide use

f. Power generation

-As human populations increase, more energy is required for human activities such as cooking, lighting, e.t.c . The majority of our energy in South Africa comes from the burning of coal at power stations and results in greatly increased emissions of sulphur and nitrogen oxides in to the atmosphere. These gases are the main cause of acid rain. Also the release of carbon dioxide, from the burning of coal, increases global warming

The is no easy way to solve water pollution, If there were it wouldn’t be so much problem

Broadly speaking, there are three different things that can help to tackle the problem- education, laws and economics and they work together as a team.

Dealing with water pollution is something that everyone including governments and local councils need to get involved

In many cities, your local environment office can help with the disposal of medicine and chemicals

*Buy more environmentally safe cleaning liquids for use at home and other public places. They are less dangerous to the environment

*Buy organic and free range

*Compost your food scraps and green waste

*Buy local and reduce carbon footprint

-Human activities have a series of progressively wornsening effects on South Africa’s scarce freshwater sources through water pollution water pollution damages not only individual species and population but also the biological communities. It renders much of the available water unsafe for both human consumption and utilisation by the ecosystem. The pressure of increasing population, loss of forest cover untreated effluent discharge from industries and municipalities, use of non-biodegradable, pesticides, use of organic manures , among many others are causing water pollution. -South Africa like anywhere else in the world, freshwater management and governance is of critical importance to avoid artificial freshwater shortages. REFERENCE

Water wise education team, Scientific services division

Bank African development