On august 20, 2019 According to the World Bank report- “Quality Unknown: The Invisible Water Crisis”,one-third of the potential economic growth will be affected in heavily water polluted areas leading to invisible crisis of water quality.
Key points:
Quality unknown report:
i.The report explains with new data and methods of how a bacteria combination, sewage, chemicals, and plastics suck oxygen from water supplies and transform water into poison for people and ecosystems.
ii.It is funded in part by the Global Water Security & Sanitation Partnership, a Multi-Donor Trust Fund based at the World Bank’s Water Global Practice.
Effect of deteriorating water quality: Deteriorating water quality hinders economic growth, worsen health conditions, reduce food production, and may lead to poverty in many countries.
Factors of poor water quality:
Nitrogen:Nitrogen which is used as a fertilizer in agriculture, affects the water system by entering rivers, lakes and oceans and finally transforming into nitrates. Nitrates in humans’ result in various health issues like cancer, birth defect, disruption in thyroid function etc.
Salinity: Each year nearly 170 million people lose food to eat due to salinity (degree of salt content). When Salinity in water and soil increases due to more intense droughts, storm surges and rising water extraction, agricultural yields fall.
Lack of oxygen: Water is polluted, when the BOD(Biological Oxygen Demand) exceeds its threshold level(8 milligrams/liter) , due to the negative impacts on health, agriculture and ecosystems.
BOD: it is a measure of how much oxygen is needed to remove waste organic matter through decomposition, by bacteria that live in environments containing oxygen.
About world bank
♦ It is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of poorer countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects.
♦ Formation- July 1944.
♦ Motto- Working for a World Free of Poverty.
♦ Headquarters- Washington DC, United States.
♦ President- David Malpass.
♦ Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer-Anshula Kant.
♦ Chief executive officer-Kristalina Georgieva.