Water and pollution: an unequal fight

Ludovica Saccone - February 24, 2023

* L’immagine di copertina di questo report è stata presa dal sito The Pew Charitable Trusts, consultabile al seguente link: https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2020/10/02/solving-ocean-plastic-pollution-wont-be-easy-but-we-have-no-choice.

We could define the word “pollution” as a buzz word, that is, one of those words that we hear every day and that are on everyone’s lips but whose meaning is often ignored. Pollution is, in fact, an omnipresent reality that affects every one of our actions, from the simplest (such as surfing the Internet or turning on the light) to the most complex (such as industrial activities or traffic). Everything around us is now a source of pollution.

But what is meant by pollution? Pollution is an alteration of the environment and occurs when it is contaminated by harmful waste (of both natural and human origin). It is a global environmental problem, it affects all States and has repercussions on both biodiversity and human health. In fact, prolonged exposure to pollutants, as well as drinking contaminated water for a long time, could also lead to the onset of cancer.

There are different forms of pollution. The best known, and most easily recognizable, is that caused by man through the abandonment of materials (both organic and inorganic) in places not designated for disposal. These pollutants alter the environment, the air, the water and the soil causing serious damage with repercussions on the entire ecosystem, to the point of upsetting natural balances.

However, there are also some forms of pollution caused by the environment itself: the eruption of a volcano, for example, releases highly polluting substances into the atmosphere that the environment is difficult to dispose of.

We know that this type of pollution concerns water in its entirety: from sea water to that of aquifers. Although water has a strong self-purifying power (it absorbs oxygen from the atmosphere and in addition its solvent capacity allows it to dissolve most of the toxic substances found in it) it is not able to deal with all the pollutants.

Fig. 1: Aumento dei rifiuti di plastica negli ultimi decenni: raggiunti i 300 milioni di tonnellate nel 2015
https://www.qualenergia.it/articoli/20180606-la-plastica-da-rifiuto-risorsa-l-industria-e-lambiente-ecco-come-fare/

The main enemy of water is plastic: in the last 65 years, approximately 8.3 billion tons have been produced. It is absurd to think that much of it has been used for only a few minutes and then thrown away, ignoring that its abandonment has a serious environmental impact. On average, the use of a plastic bag is equal to 12 minutes, at the end of which it is thrown away, continuing to exist for another 500 years.

The boom in its production occurred following the Second World War, profoundly transforming and characterizing our society. Today, plastic is at the center of the activity of almost all sectors, used as the main material: from medicine, to cars to everyday tools.

The price we are paying is highly risky and concerns the contamination and destruction of animal species, natural areas as well as the pollution of areas considered until recently pristine. In fact, microplastics have been found on top of Everest and in the Arctic: this happens because of the rapid degradation of microplastics which, being in the sea, end up breaking down into hundreds of thousands of fragments smaller than half a centimeter, thus managing to spread in the drinking water circuits until they reach “unreachable” places.

According to a study conducted by Orb Media together with the State University of New York and the University of Minnesota, in a half-liter sample of tap water taken in a bathroom of the Capitol Hill visitors center, the seat of Congress in Washington, 16 microplastic fibers were found, one of the highest totals of the study. The same quantity was found in a sample collected at the headquarters of the EPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency). It is therefore legitimate to think that when we drink water coming from our tap we are, in a certain way, poisoning ourselves.

Fig. 2: Frammento di plastica nell’acqua potabile
https://lab.gedidigital.it/repubblica/2017/ambiente/inquinamento_plastica_acqua/#:~:text=Sono%20sempre%20pi%C3%B9%20numerose%20le,corrente%20di%20tutto%20il%20mondo

The main “hidden” sources from which large quantities of microplastics come are:

Synthetic fibres in laundry: clothes made of fleece, acrylic and polyester release thousands of microscopic fibres with each wash. Every year, around one million tonnes are released into wastewater;
Tyre dust: these end up in drains and then in waterways. Every 100 km travelled by cars and trucks, around 200 grams are released into the environment;
synthetic fibers in the air: it is believed that the dispersion of these fibres from fabrics into the air can occur even just through the rubbing of limbs when walking. Every year, between three and ten tonnes end up in the air;
Poorly disposed of plastic waste: these are forks, plastic bags, bottles and so on. They fragment and degrade in cold seas, entering the marine and human food chain. Every year, around 8 million tonnes of them are discharged into the waters of oceans, rivers and lakes;
Paint dust: used for homes, road signs and so on, completely covers the surface of the oceans[1].

More than 80% of marine pollution is caused by land-based activities: dispersion of chemicals and fertilizers, discharge of impure water, oil leaks and waste are the main causes. The most densely polluted waters are those found near large cities, where industrial production is greater and consequently also the production of polluting material.

The greatest concentration of waste in the sea is found in Asia and Africa, countries where waste collection is often inefficient or non-existent. Every year, approximately 450 million tons of plastic waste are produced, of which approximately 8 million tons end up in the oceans, becoming a constituent part of the diet of fish fauna, mistaken for fish or plankton: approximately 700 species have been affected by pollution from plastic materials. In fact, research has found plastic fibers inside fish sold in markets in Southeast Asia, East Africa, and California. According to estimates, about 86 million tons of plastic waste have already ended up in the sea today.

Fig. 3: Rifiuti in mare
https://www.repubblica.it/ambiente/2019/02/27/news/inquinamento_da_plastica_nei_pesci_degli_abissi-220267802/

It is also important to know that until the 1960s, the oceans were considered immense landfills and everything from pesticides to radioactive waste was disposed of there. Why such behavior? It was assumed that these expanses of water were large enough to be able to dispose of and dilute enormous quantities of chemical substances, rendering them harmless. Needless to say, these substances never disappeared. A few years later, at the beginning of the 1970s, the first steps were taken towards the protection and safeguard of these areas: the 1972 London Convention (London Dumping Convention) aims to protect the seas from pollution due to toxic and radioactive waste, while the London Protocol, signed in 1996, introduced more severe restrictions such as the ban on dumping and incinerating industrial, radioactive and toxic waste at sea (Sea Pollution, WWF).

Agriculture and Water Pollution

Another major threat to water and groundwater pollution is agriculture. The boom in agriculture occurred after the Second World War, and was largely due to the increased use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, which sped up and simplified production processes. Just think that since 1970, global sales of pesticides have gone from about a billion dollars to 35 billion dollars a year. Today's data are even more disconcerting: about 115 million tons of nitrogen-based fertilizers are spread every year, of which 20% ends up infiltrating the soil and 35% is dispersed into the oceans[2]. Groundwater plays an essential role in the water supply of local populations, in addition to collecting rainwater and feeding rivers. They are polluted mostly by nutrients, pesticides, salts, sediments, organic carbon, pathogens, metals and drug residues. But the main contaminant of anthropogenic origin is nitrate, a mineral fertilizer widely used in agriculture that, being very soluble, easily infiltrates into the subsoil. About 50% of nitrogen fertilizers applied to fields are lost in drainage waters, in the form of nitrates.

Fig. 4: Possibili fonti dell’inquinamento da nitrati in falda (fonte: ISPRA, 2015)
https://www.waterandfoodsecurity.org/scheda.php?id=145

The World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that, to avoid short-term toxic effects, nitrates in drinking water should not exceed 50 milligrams per liter. In addition, the European Union Water Directive establishes that drinking water must be “of the best possible quality.” This is because nitrates can be very dangerous to human health, to the point of forming carcinogenic substances in the body.

Unfortunately, Spain is the country with the highest rate of nitrates in water: some areas of Valencia reach 500 milligrams of nitrates per liter (data from the Geological and Mining Institute). A disconcerting figure and very far from the limits imposed by the WHO that prompted the European Commission to sanction Madrid. According to data from the Generalitat Valenciana, approximately 216,000 people live in areas where the level of nitrates in drinking water exceeds the permitted limit.

Continuing to analyze the Iberian reality, in the region of Valencia a total of 453 lots of drinking water are contaminated by nitrates and other chemical substances; in addition, according to the Ministry of Ecological Transition, half of the Spanish underground aquifers are also seriously polluted[3].

As stated in the Unesco report, agricultural pollution is the main factor in the degradation of inland and coastal waters. Furthermore, “in the European Union, 38% of water bodies are subjected to significant pressure due to agricultural pollution. In the USA, agriculture is the main source of pollution of rivers. Finally, in China, where agriculture is responsible for much of the nitrogen pollution of surface and underground waters[4]”.

According to the FAO, the best way to try to reduce the damage to water ecosystems and rural ecologies is to limit the transmission of pollutants to the sources or intercept them before they reach and damage vulnerable ecosystems. To do this, farmers must be involved directly and policies and incentives must be developed that encourage the use of less pesticides. There are already several EU-funded projects (such as FERTINNOWA) that aim to make farmers adopt more sustainable practices, thus replacing chemical fertilizers with organic fertilizers.

In addition, to try to prevent the pollution of aquifers by nitrates, there are regulations such as the Nitrates Directive (Directive 91/676/EEC implemented in Italy with Legislative Decree 152/99) which provides for the use of intensive programs aimed at reducing the use in agriculture of all fertilizers containing nitrogen in areas where aquifers contain more than 50 mg/l of nitrates. This directive is an integral part of the European Union's regulatory action for the protection of water. And from an economic point of view? Globally, the environmental and social cost of pollution of surface and groundwater caused by agriculture is estimated to be several billion dollars per year (OECD, 2021).

The Pacific Trash Vortex

A phenomenon closely linked to water pollution is the Pacific Trash Vortex, also known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and means “the great patch of garbage in the Pacific”. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it is a vast area of accumulation of waste, especially plastic materials, of which about 80% comes from land while the remaining 20% comes from ship discharge. It is made up of about 20,000 pieces per square kilometer for a total of about 79 tons of plastic. Estimates of its size vary between 700,000 km2 up to more than 1 million km2 (that is, an area three times the size of France). This accumulation was discovered about 35 years ago and is currently concentrated and divided mainly into two different areas:

the first part, called the Western Garbage Patch, is located near Japan,

and the second part, called the Eastern Garbage Patch, is located between Hawaii and California.

These two areas are held together by the North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone, located a few hundred kilometers north of the Hawaiian Islands (Great Pacific Garbage Patch, National Geographic). In this area the warm waters of the South Pacific meet the colder waters of the Arctic creating a vortex that constantly moves debris/waste from one area to another. And it is precisely this particular ocean current that is mainly responsible for the formation of this large island of garbage. In fact, its clockwise spiral movement causes the formation of piles of garbage that remain trapped in the center of the vortex.

Fig. 5: Mappa raffigurante il Pacific Trash Vortex
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/great-pacific-garbage-patch

This sad reality is mainly characterized by non-biodegradable materials. It is certain that the seabed of this area is also a large landfill: about 70% of the debris is deposited here. This phenomenon has devastating consequences for the flora and fauna of the area, as well as for the quality of the water: such a concentration of waste is a vehicle for pollution and disease. Ecologists have even started using the term "hypoxia" (belonging to the world of medicine) to define areas like this, that is, areas in which the concentration of waste is so high that it compromises the presence of oxygen, which turns out to have such a low concentration that it compromises marine life.

But the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is unfortunately not the only island of waste to exist, we can also list:

the South Pacific Garbage Patch off the coast of Peru and is 8 times larger than Italy (2.6 million km2),
the Sargassi Garbage Patch, is the latest island of plastic to be discovered and one of the most recent in formation,
the Arctic Garbage Patch which is located in the Berents Sea in the Arctic Circus and its creation is mainly caused by European nations.

The Ocean Cleanup association, a non-governmental organization, has been trying for years to remove the waste present in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch with specially designed expeditions, but, obviously, it is not enough to restore its environmental conditions and to reduce its size. The most ambitious project, aimed at cleaning the oceans from plastic, is the one conceived by Boyan Slat, founder of the non-profit Ocean Cleanup. The project consists of a polyethylene tube 1.2 meters in diameter and 600 meters long that is placed on the surface of the ocean in the shape of a U. Moving slowly through the water, guided by the currents and winds, it can capture both waste on the surface and that located up to a depth of three meters. Obviously the tube has lights and anti-collision systems to avoid impacts with ships. According to initial estimates, in the first year it should be possible to collect between 45,000 and 68,000 kilos of plastic. Slat's goal is to be able to clean up to 50% of the plastic island in five years[5].

Fig.6: Great Pacific Garbage patch
https://gruppo23al.wixsite.com/atlantemagazine/post/the-great-pacific-garbage-patch

What to do to reduce water pollution? A European overview

In light of what has been observed so far, it would be appropriate for everyone to behave in a way that is respectful of the places and nature that surrounds us. If each of us paid a little more attention and promoted a lifestyle dedicated to environmental protection (so eliminating disposable objects, buying glass bottles, eliminating plastic bags, using natural detergents, not throwing cooking oils and fats down the drain - a liter of oil can pollute up to a million liters of water) we could have an improvement in current conditions. Obviously, the "bulk of work" must be done by policies and incentives aimed at environmental protection. In fact, the protection and management of water resources is a domain also protected by European Union framework standards and directives on water, which aim to safeguard clean water and its sustainable use.

In 2012, the European Commission presented the Blueprint to Safeguard Europe’s Water Resources, a programme that ensures adequate water supply in terms of quality and quantity for all legitimate uses. It requires all Member States to develop water accounting and establish standards for water reuse. This project consists of two main legal plans, namely the Water Framework Directive and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, listed below:

Water Framework Directive and specific water directives, consisting of:

Groundwater Directive
Drinking Water Directive
Bathing Water Directive
Environmental Quality Standards Directive
Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive
Nitrates Directive
Floods Directive
EU Coastal and Maritime Policy, consisting of:
Marine Strategy Framework Directive
Regulation on Integrated Coastal Zone Management
Ship Source Pollution Directive
International Regional Water Agreements, consisting of four international cooperation structures for the protection of marine waters in Europe:
1992 OSPAR Convention (based on the earlier Oslo and Paris Conventions) for the North-East Atlantic;
1992 Helsinki Convention for the Baltic Sea area;
Barcelona Convention (UNEP-MAP) of 1995 for the Mediterranean;
Bucharest Convention of 1992 for the Black Sea.

As regards the protection of river waters we must list:

la Convenzione sulla protezione del Danubio del 1996;
la Convenzione per la protezione delle acque dell’Oder dall’inquinamento del 1999;
la Convenzione per la protezione del Reno del 1999.

There are also several interregional cooperation strategies focused on the protection of marine waters or river basins:

la strategia per la regione del Mar Baltico del 2009 (la prima strategia globale dell’UE messa a punto per una macroregione);
la strategia per la regione del Danubio del 2011;
la strategia per la regione adriatico-ionica del 2014.

More recently, a European Citizens’ Initiative was born: Right2Water, which urged the EU institutions and Member States to ensure that all citizens enjoy the right to water and sanitation, that the management and supply of water resources are not administered by internal market rules and that water services are eliminated from liberalization measures. In response to this, on 15 December 2020, the European Parliament approved the revised Drinking Water Directive, which entered into force two years ago, on 12 January 2021.

(Articles 191 to 193 of the TFEU, Protection and management of water resources).

Finally, it is necessary to remember that the new EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 also aims to further strengthen the protection of marine ecosystems, a topic that was also highlighted during the COP15 recently concluded in Montreal, Canada.

Fonti

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[1] Per maggiori dettagli si rimanda a (Tutta la plastica che beviamo, Dan Morrison & Chris Tyree in collaborazione con Orb, La Repubblica, 2017).

[2] Per maggiori dettagli si rimanda a Goffredo Galeazzi, Quando è l’agricoltura a inquinare acqua e suolo, reperibile al seguente link: https://www.cambialaterra.it/2018/06/quando-lagricoltura-e-linquinatore-numero-1/.

[3] Per maggiori dettagli si rimanda a Manuel Domingo Martì, L’agricoltura irresponsabile ha avvelenato metà delle falde acquifere spagnole, in “Euronews”, reperibile al seguente link: https://it.euronews.com/2019/12/17/l-agricoltura-irresponsabile-ha-avvelenato-meta-delle-falde-acquifere-spagnole.

[4] Rapporto mondiale delle Nazioni Unite sullo sviluppo delle risorse idriche 2022, “Acque sotterranee – Rendere visibile la risorsa invisibile”, 2022, p.58.

[5] Per maggiori dettagli si rimanda a Laura Parker, i La macchina che rimuove la plastica dal Pacifico, in “National Geograhic”, reperibile al seguente link: https://www.nationalgeographic.it/ambiente/2020/02/la-macchina-che-rimuove-la-plastica-dal-pacifico-ha-avuto-un-problema

Water and pollution: an unequal fight

Fig. 1: Aumento dei rifiuti di plastica negli ultimi decenni: raggiunti i 300 milioni di tonnellate nel 2015https://www.qualenergia.it/articoli/20180606-la-plastica-da-rifiuto-risorsa-l-industria-e-lambiente-ecco-come-fare/

Contact Email: info@abaqua.eu

Fig. 1: Aumento dei rifiuti di plastica negli ultimi decenni: raggiunti i 300 milioni di tonnellate nel 2015
https://www.qualenergia.it/articoli/20180606-la-plastica-da-rifiuto-risorsa-l-industria-e-lambiente-ecco-come-fare/