Water resource deterioration

Drought Fire, depletion of water resources, deterioration of soil, loss of plant and animal life... 

Water is a resource that is vital to everyone. And water is a vulnerable asset that can be deteriorated by man. These points together make it clear that the fate of the water resource is of interest to every person. 

The Water Resources Act (WRA) 1991 provides for the regulating authority, the Environment Agency in England and Wales, to issue consents that include information on the composition of the discharge, volume, concentration and total amount of substances that can be released. Conditions vary on the use of the receiving watercourse but must ensure no deterioration in water quality. Registers of information are kept and are freely available to the public. The Water Industry Act... 

There are a number of Issues associated with remediation of contaminated sites that are currently under debate in the technical community. The most important of these, the impractlcallty of total remediation, was stated as early as 1980 by the U.S. Geological Survey (SI) in the following way "deterioration in [groundwater] quality constitutes a permanent loss of water resource because treatment of the water or rehabilitation of the aquifers is presently generally impractical." This point has been re-stated in more recent commentaries (B, IB, IS)j and the issues of feasibility, cost, contaminant, prioritization, and overall approach to remediation remain. This Important debate will continue as more is learned about both the limitations and successes of remediation technology. 

When using water resources for a public supply of drinking water, the greatest danger lies in an emergency excess of nitrates. In many basins the content of nitrates has doubled within the last 20-25 years. If this development of pollution with nitrates continues there is a possibility of deterioration of all sources of drinking waters within several decades. 

First, human beings will face new challenges of food problems. It means that we need to optimize food production as well as to optimize the distribution of food on the Earth. Second, in future, the world s resources will be depleted and the envirraiment will be deteriorated. Though oil resources are in decline, the remaining sources will be found in less desirable locations, e.g., imder deep waters such as the Gulf of Mexico where a recent spiU occurred. 

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