The Impact of Water Pollution
Published on by Nuno Silva, CSTO - Chief Scientist and Technology Officer at UnifAI Technology in Technology
The planet keeps nudging us with increasingly extreme droughts, reminding us that water is life. It is an essential resource upon which all living beings depend and it is crucial to all social and economic development, as well as energy production and adaptation to climate change. Nevertheless, we are now facing a gigantic challenge.
How do we stop contaminating our rivers, seas, oceans, canals, lakes, and reservoirs?
Main causes of water pollution
Global warming
Rising global temperatures caused by CO2 emissions heat the water, reducing its oxygen content.
Deforestation
Felling forests can exhaust water resources and generate organic residue which becomes a breeding ground for harmful bacteria.
Industry, agriculture, and livestock farming
Chemical dumping from these sectors is one of the main causes of eutrophication of water.
Rubbish and faecal water dumping
The UN says that more than 80% of the world's sewage finds its way into seas and rivers untreated.
Maritime traffic
Much of the plastic pollution in the ocean comes from fishing boats, tankers and cargo shipping.
Fuel spillages
The transportation and storage of oil and its derivatives is subject to leakage that pollutes our water resources.
Effects of water pollution
Deteriorating water quality is damaging the environment, health conditions and the global economy.
Destruction of biodiversity
Water pollution depletes aquatic ecosystems and triggers unbridled proliferation of phytoplankton in lakes — eutrophication.
Contamination of the food chain
Fishing in polluted waters and the use of wastewater for livestock farming and agriculture can introduce toxins into foods which are harmful to our health when eaten.
Lack of potable water
The UN says that billions of people around the world have no access to clean water to drink or sanitation, particularly in rural areas.
Disease
The WHO estimates that about 2 billion people have no option but to drink water contaminated by excrement, exposing them to diseases such as cholera, hepatitis A and dysentery.
Infant mortality
According to the UN, diarrhoeal diseases linked to lack of hygiene cause the death of about 1,000 children a day worldwide.
What we do?
Real-time water quality monitoring solutions can provide timely information about water quality by directly processing the data collected from distributed monitoring mechanisms, thereby enabling quick responses to address potential leakages and water pollution incidents.
UnifAI Technology Real Time Early Warning System is the 1st line of defence using low-cost sensor leveraged by AI method, which identifies and provides easy, rapid alarms of pollutants presence.
The whole process is cost effective, and the results can be achieved in real time.
Source: The World Bank
Attached link
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nunosilvainnovation_water-environment-climatechange-activity-6840949841124704256-ZByDTaxonomy
- Pollution
- Pollution
- Industrial Pollution