INFORMATION

WHAT IS WATER POLLUTION?

Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies such as lakes, rivers, and oceans by chemicals like crude oils, antibiotics, pesticides.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO FIX?

Whether local or global, water pollution effects practically everyone no matter where they live. It also effects every living organism. This is because it effects the ecosystem by killing off more and more marine life daily. This creates a butterfly effect throughout the ecosystem, where the organisms that previously relied on this marine life for food or population control no longer have this remorse. This creates an off balance in the ecosystem. As well as animals, humans also have a decrease in food supply because the aquatic life such as fish and crabs is no longer available for consumption.

WHO ARE THE MAIN ACTORS/ STAKEHOLDERS?

The UN Secretary General has stressed the importance of responding to the voice of stakeholders, The Global Water Partnership (GWP) has used its extensive network of partners to reach out to the stakeholders across the world. A series of consultations have been organized in 22 countries with a range of stakeholders intimately involved in water and water related sectors. The stakeholders have given a consistent message to politicians: it is time to move forward on water. The MDGs provided a launching pad and the post-2015 development agenda must build on this. Water is fundamental to all sustainable development needs and must be poverty reduction and the environment, all depend on water security and that constitutes the rationale for highlighting water in the post-2015 development framework.

DATA:

Facts about water pollution:

40% of America’s rivers and 46% of America’s lakes are too polluted for fishing, swimming, or aquatic life.
How the world uses freshwater: • about 70 percent for irrigation • about 22 percent for industry • about 8 percent for domestic use
Polluted drinking waters are a problem for about half of the world’s population. Each year there are about 250 million cases of water-based diseases, resulting in roughly 5 to 10 million deaths.