Water Pollution 2 Essay Research Paper Our

Water Pollution 2 Essay, Research Paper Our oceans cover approximately 75% of the planet Earth. A distinct percent of our food resources come from these waters including fish and plants. The air around us is what keeps the flame of life from fading and flickering out. Why would anyone pollute these precious parts of our ecosystem? Well they are, and pollution laws should be strengthened and vigorously enforced no matter what the cost. China, a country with an extensive coast line, should work harder to protect its marine environment. According to the theme of the international Year of the Ocean, 1998, oceans are the common inheritance of all people, it is therefore our responsibility to protect the oceans for future generations. So then why is there a large-scale discharge of

waste containing nutrients with nitrogen and phosphorus contributing to the killing of 300 tons of fish (China environment Daily). The paper said that a total of 2.9 billion tons of sewage were discharged into the waters at South China s Pearl River mouth in 1997, with a rate treatment of less than 10%. This large amount of discharge of harmful land-sourced substances into the seas has posed a major threat to the marine environment. The current law, which merely restricts the concentration of pollutants, is not effective enough to guarantee a high quality of seawater. This is an effect of the legislation lacking articles concerning the quantity of the discharged wastes. The disastrous red tide which hit the coastal waters of China s Guangdong Province and Hong Kong between March

and April of 1998, is a direct result of this lackingness. In August of 1982, China adopted the Law on Marine Environment Protection, which went into effect March of 83. Regulations such as: Regulations Concerning the Prevention Damage to the Marine Environment by Coastal Construction Projects (1990), Regulations Concerning the Prevention of Pollution Damage to the Marine Environment by Land-based Pollutants (1990) and Regulations Concerning the Dumping of Wastes at Sea (1985) were all enacted and all have prevented serious damage to seawater during the past 15 years. But who is to say what is considered serious, these pollutants could have killed off species of marine life yet to be discovered by man. What if some now extinct type of marine plant held the cure to AIDS or cancer,

mankind will never know because we are too busy dumping our wastes into these environments disrupting the ecosystems. But land-based pollutants are not the only destructers of man that disturb the ecological balance of the sea. Uncontrolled, profit driven sand and gravel dredging and excavation have damaged mangroves and coral reefs, causing equally harmful effects to the marine ecology as does pollution from waste water. The fish breeding sites in tidal areas and major migration routes are sometimes destroyed by the irrational construction of dams and the uncontrolled reclaiming of land from the sea for building development zones. Much of the waters bordering China are also in contact with Japan, and Japan has a large fishing economy which is now going to be affected by the vast

amounts of fishes either dying off of moving to cleaner waters. An institutional reform is to be under way, but government function have not been clearly defined and the overlapping of different institutions responsibilities still prevents the effective implementation of the law. According to Liu Nanlai, a senior research fellow of the Law Institute from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, to prevent troubles from arising during the operation of the law, a single governmental institution to support the unified management of State marine protection affairs is desperately needed . But while everyone is running around trying to get all the legal affairs settled, manufacturers and businesses are still dumping excessive wastes into our oceans. And I say our oceans because the