Flint, H. (2014, January 8). Latin American rivers among most polluted in the world, says new study. Retrieved August 24, 2015, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/argentina/10559685/Latin-American-rivers-among-most-polluted-in-the-world-says-new-study.html
Over 70 percent of used water in Latin America goes back into rivers without receiving any treatment. Sewage and industrial waste return to bodies of water. This is a large health hazard to people in the area. This causes problems with the regions supply of drinking water. Developing countries often lack water treatment plants, which leads to a lack of clean water.
A large percentage of Latin America’s water is contaminated. I experienced this at first hand when I was in Guatemala this summer. I got sick from drinking the water out of the faucet. We were told to only drink water from the water jugs that were at the house because the water is not potable. This problem is related to environmental science because it shows that when a nation lacks a water treatment program, it leads to unclean water being recycled over and over again.
This seems really concerning both for the people and for the environment. I hope the governments in Latin America can find a way to start treating this water because they could really be killing their own people if they aren’t cleaning the water. Also, they could be damaging important resources that are in/around the river, like fish or farms that take water from the river.
That is true. It is a really big problem.
This is an example of why governments should implement and enforce laws to ensure that the water people are drinking is clean and will not cause any health problems. Not only will it stop the destruction of fragile aquatic ecosystems but it is in the peoples best interest to treat the water and to prevent serious health problems.
That would be a good way to help with the problem. However, it would be hard to implement in many Latin American countries.
This is one example that shows that developing countries need to be doing more, but cant always f und projects to help the environment