Hello! Everyone!!

How are you today????

As a second series of pollution in Seoul, I would like to talk about water pollution.   Water pollution is continuously happening because of sewer discharge, industrial emissions, drift net fishing, and wasteful packaging of consumer goods. As a result, city sewer systems are overtaxed, acid rain is pouring, sea level is rising, and a lot of creatures are endangered. 

Now, let?s take a look at one incidence dealing with the water pollution.  On 2011, 6, 11 The Seoul Metropolitan Government said that it has removed about 2000 tons of oil contaminated underground water over the last decade.  568 liters of floating oil and 1970 tons of polluted underground water have been extracted since 2001.  This is an enormous amount of oil to pull out.  Though oil spill case can happen in just 3 minutes, the job to return the harmed nature into the normal will definitely take a long time.  There is more important fact than this that people should realize.  Actually, the contaminated water contains harmful chemicals including benzene, toluene and xylene.  These pollutants within the bases can expand beyond the area after dissolving in rainwater.  If the water sewage system doesn?t work properly, people can get direct harm from these materials.

There is one famous phenomenon that was widely broadcasted in Korea dealing with the problem of Cheong-Gye-Cheon.  Government reported on 2011,8,17 that a popular stream running through the Seoul has been severely polluted by bacteria.  It contained as many as 53 times the legal limit of colon bacillus.  Mojeon Bridge upstream had 7201 bactaer, and in the downstream, there were 53,303 bacteria.      

Then, how is the state of general water quality in Seoul?  Paldang, Mulguem, Daechong, Juam reservoirs? which are considered as the four major drinking water supply sources situation is getting worse.  Only 3 of the 26 Class I lakes and 4 out of 16 Class II lakes met the standard in 2007, which means that most of the lakes were determined as polluted.  Moreover, eutrophication is rising as a bigger problem.  2 or the 49 graded lakes are classed hypertrophic, 11 are classed as eutrophic(rich in nutrient), 33 are mesotrophic(with medium levels of nutrients) and 3 are almost oligotrophic.   

Until now, we looked at air and water pollution in Seoul.  Next month, I will come back with a new article dealing with the solutions the government is taking to these pollutions.  See you next time! And have a great day:D