In todays world, with barely anything remaining untouched of human imprints, there are severe threats being posed to natural resources due to human encroachment. When we talk about water bodies and how human intervention affects us, some of the prominent threats include pollution, deforestation, animals ingesting plastic, urban growth, etc. Creating dams, bores, irrigation for farming, power generation are some of the other human made interventions on water bodies.  

The social cost of water pollution due to human interference has not been paid much attention to. Locations with high populations of people such as the Asian sub-continent, having a long list of endangered species, on both water and land and popular recreation and religious opportunities will generally have higher social costs of water pollution than less densely populated or less sensitive environments. [1]

Measuring the cost of human activities on water bodies can be done through looking at some statistics. When we look at the effect of plastic disposal, up to 12.7 million tonnes of plastic enters our oceans. Only a small percentage of plastic dumped floats and rest sinks down into the ocean. Additionally, over 1 million marine animals are killed each year due to plastic debris in the ocean. The Pacific Trash Vortex, Which spreads from North America to Japan, is a trash vortex which contains nearly 1.8 trillion of plastic waste coming out of human activities. The trash found here are fishing nets and other land activity waste. The two main contributing areas of the region include Asia and North America. China is the world’s biggest polluter of marine ecosystem. Other offenders include Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Egypt. Out of the 18 billion pounds of plastic pollution that goes into seas, only 10 river systems contribute to 90% of the plastic that flows into the sea and 8 of these rivers belong to the Asian region namely: Yangtze, Yellow, Indus, Hai He, Ganges, Mekong, Amur, and Pearl. [2]

Another human activity that harms water bodies is creation of dams. The risk associated with dam creation is huge. 1 out of 80 of embankment dams have failed or experienced an accident by seepage and internal erosion. Dams affect not only water bodies, but also human tribes that are displaced due to their creation. Narmada Bachao Andolan in India was such a revolt to protect against he incessant creation of mega dams in the Narmada river region, in order to protect the displacement of residents of the construction site. Serious erosion, cracks and tendons in the spillway pier and concrete shaft of the spillway, seriously deterioration of gates and electrical facilities are some of the major problems with creation of dams.

There is an immeasurable damage humans have done to the natural world. The extent is unfathomable, specially on water bodies. Only constructive discussions to solve problems of human interruptions in other natural communities may not solve the problem so easily. We need action now and nothing beyond a sincere approach to reduce the cost of human activities.

[1] https://www.resourcesmag.org/archives/social-cost-water-pollution/ 

[2] https://www.condorferries.co.uk/plastic-in-the-ocean-statistics