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More than 1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water

More than 1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water. WHY?. Minimata, Japan. Minamata. Chisso Corporation, in Minamata, Japan Plastics, drugs, perfumes 1920s, dumped waste in Minamata Bay Cheaper to pay fishermen than properly dispose of waste

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More than 1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water

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  1. More than 1 billion peoplelack access to safe drinking water WHY?

  2. Minimata, Japan

  3. Minamata • Chisso Corporation, in Minamata, Japan • Plastics, drugs, perfumes • 1920s, dumped waste in Minamata Bay • Cheaper to pay fishermen than properly dispose of waste • 1950s: people had numbness, slurred speech, deformed limbs • Animals (cats, birds) died • 1960s: linked to mercury in fish

  4. Fecal contamination • Well over 2 million people—mostly children in poor countries—die of diarrhea every year • Almost always a waterborne illness • Fecal contamination usually detected by testing for E. coli or fecal coliforms • Usually: NOT pathogenic

  5. Pathogens in water • Harder to test for than E. coli • Include organisms that cause: • Cholera • Typhoid fever • Gastroenteritis • Meningitis • hepatitis

  6. Dhaka, Bangladesh

  7. Pesticides being applied to lettuce in California Danger to applicators and many other environmental issues Runoff Agriculture

  8. Groundwater contamination • About 50% of US population gets drinking water from groundwater • in agricultural areas, that percentage is HIGHER • However: more pesticides detected in surface water than in groundwater. WHY?

  9. Pesticides, Denver metro area    Color indicates type of pesticide:Herbicideand Insecticide.

  10. VOCs

  11. Atrazine • Common herbicide • Evidence as recently as 2010 that it affects development of ``amphibian gonads’’  frog gender becomes confused • In agricultural communities, evidence of lowered sperm count among men

  12. Point vs. non-point source

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