User:Mari2132/sandbox

Affecting Communities

People in developing countries suffer from contaminated water and landfills caused by unlawful government policies that allow first-world countries and companies to transport their trash to their homes and oftentimes near bodies of water. Those same governments do not use any waste trade profits to create ways to manage landfills or clean water sources. Photographer Kevin McElvaney documents the world’s biggest e-waste dump called Agbogbloshie in Accra, Ghana, which used to be a wetland. The young men and children that work in Agbogbloshie smash devices to get to the metals, obtain burns, eye damage, lung and back problems, chronic nausea, debilitating headaches, and respiratory problems and most workers die from cancer in their 20s (McElvaney). In McElvaney’s photos, kids in fields burning refrigerators and computers with blackened hands and trashed clothes and animals, such as cows with open wounds, in the dumpsite. There are piles of waste used as makeshift bridges over lakes, with metals and chemicals just seeping into the water and groundwater that could be linked to homes' water systems. The same unfortunate situation and dumps/landfills can be seen in similar countries that are considered the third world, such as other West African countries and China. Many Advocating for waste management, stop waste trade, create wastewater treatment facilities, and ultimately provide a clean and accessible water source. The health of all these people in landfills and water are human necessities/rights that are being taken away.

Solution: Waste- Water Facilities

Waste-water treatment facilities remove pollutants and contaminants physically and chemically to clean water to be returned to society. The South Gippsland Water organization breaks down the three steps of waste-water treatment. The primary treatment is to sift through the water to remove large solids to leave oils and small particles in the water. Secondary treatment to dissolve/remove oils, particles, and micro-organisms from the water to be prepared for tertiary treatment to chemically disinfect the water with chlorine or with UV light. “For most industrial applications, a 150,000 GPD capacity WWTS would cost an estimated $500,000 to $1.5 million inclusive of all necessary design, engineering, equipment, installation, and startup” (Marshall, 35). With such a simple solution that has been proven to clean our water to be reused and is relatively inexpensive, there is no excuse why there should not be a waste-water treatment facility in every country, every state, and every town.

Benefits

“Right now, according to a Nasa-led study, many of the world’s freshwater sources are being drained faster than they are being replenished. The water table is dropping all over the world. There’s not an infinite supply of water” (Smedley). There is a need to preserve every resource, every finite water source that we do have left to maintain our lives and lifestyles. Able countries helping under-developed countries with their creation of wastewater treatments benefits society. With the addition of wastewater treatment facilities with spending a few million dollars and infrastructure to clean our areas and freshwater to reuse instead of over-using our land and water supply, which would be the greatest cost. Another cost of not adding wastewater treatments in countries is that people have no choice but to clean with, cook with, or drink the contaminated water which has caused millions of disease cases and deaths. “Between 400,000 and 1 million people die each year in developing countries because of diseases caused by mismanaged waste, estimates poverty charity Tearfund” (Edmond). Society has the means to decrease or even eliminate this way of death and save millions of lives by providing the simple human necessity of clean water.