Around 320 million people in China alone lack access to clean drinking water. In the United States, where all it takes to get a drink is a turn of the faucet, many people take clean water for granted. However, the effects of littering and other causes of water pollution cause many challenges around the world. While there is not necessarily one strategy that will work to eliminate pollution and help clean up water sources altogether, there are lots of going green ideas that can help. All of them are needed since there are many different factors that cause a reduction in water quality.
Pesticides and insecticides are one of the major causes of poor water quality, especially in the United States. More than 100 ingredients are linked to health problems like cancer and birth defects, and 41% of all insecticides are used solely on corn crops. Though there have been regulations and new products that help make them less harmful, they still pollute water sources. So continuing to find ways to clean up pesticides and lowering their use is a great way to improve water quality.
Of course, most people are aware of the fact that factories and production or manufacturing facilities are major polluters. Every year, American factories release three million tons of toxic chemicals into the surrounding air and land. Much of those chemicals find their way into water systems. So companies who want to go green and do their part to preserve the environment and keep water clean will need to use proper waste disposal techniques.
On top of that, the fact that people continue to litter constantly, despite the fact that there are do not litter signs and warnings seemingly everywhere, plays a major role. Over the past 20 years, the amount of plastics polluting the earth has increased some 10% every year. With dependence on and use of plastics not expected to diminish any time soon, its hard to foresee that type of water and land pollution decreasing.
In reality, regardless of how many do not litter signs are posted and regulations are created, the responsibility to clean up the environment falls on people. Reducing and simply making sure that waste finds a garbage can can go a long way towards helping clean up the planet and making sure that as many people as possible have access to clean water.