Asia

Environmental
Problems #20
-Describe the causes and effects of pollution on the Yangtze
and Ganges Rivers.
-Describe the causes and effects of air pollution and flooding
in India and China.
 Use the PowerPoint to get causes, effects and other
information for the environmental issues that plague Asia.
•Nothing is highlighted or boldened
meaning you need to READ through the
information & decide what the causes,
effects & extra important info may be for
yourselves. ☺
•Use headphones for the videos if you have
them.
Yangtze River- China
 Yangtze River
•Industrial
chemicals have
put the Yangtze
River on the
brink of
catastrophe.
•It is the third-longest in
the world.
•The river’s problems
reflect the water crisis
facing the world’s most
highly populated country.
• China’s people are already short
of supplies because of prolonged
drought in many regions — and
much of what remains has been
contaminated by industrialization.
• About 40 percent of all waste
water produced in China —
some 25 billion tons per year —
flows into the Yangtze river, but
more than 80 percent of it is
untreated beforehand.
•Industrial waste and
sewage, agricultural
pollution and shipping
discharges were to
blame for the river’s
declining health, the
experts said.
•The river, the longest in the world after the
Nile and the Amazon, runs from Qinghai and
Tibet in the remote far west, through 186
booming cities, before emptying into the sea
at Shanghai. For the futuristic city’s 20 million
residents, the death of the river could be
critical. Lu Jianjian, a professor at Shanghai’s
East China Normal University, said: “As the
river is the only source of drinking water in
Shanghai, it has been a great challenge for
Shanghai to get clean water.”
• Environmentalists fear that unless
local governments and industries
become serious about cutting
pollution, most of the water shipped
north will not be fit to drink.
• Professor Lu said that contamination
has reduced the number of species
living in the Yangtze from 126 in the
mid- 1980s, to 52 four years ago. The
Yangtze dolphin may have already
become the first cetacean to be
made extinct by humans.
• https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=OwOBRH56Ic0
Ganges River
• The Ganges River begins high in the Himalayas and
flows southeast through India and Bangladesh for
more than 1,500 miles to the Bay of Bengal.

• It is the most important river to the Indian

subcontinent.
• The Ganges provides water for drinking, bathing, cooking, and
for transportation for over 400 million people who live in its river
valley.
• It runs through India’s most fertile and densely populated areas.
• The Ganges is nicknamed “Mother Ganges”, and it is
very sacred to the Hindu religion.
• The Ganges river, also called "Mother Ganga" has been
worshiped in India for more than 2000 years as the symbol of
spiritual purity. And though spiritual purity has remained untouched
for more than two centuries, her physical purity has deteriorated
as this holy river suffers from severe pollution.
• Many people use the
river for water &
transportation.
• According to different
scientific studies pollution
is taking a heavy toll on
Ganges river and 300
million gallons of waste
go into the Ganges each
day, causing terrible
effects.
• The amount of domestic sewage
being dumped into the Ganges has
more than doubled since the
1990's, and some studies suggest it
could double again in a next
generation. Scientists also found
that portions of the river have a
fecal bacteria count nearly 4,000
times the World Health
Organization's standard for bathing
and recent water samples collected
revealed even worse results with a
fecal bacteria count 10,000 times
higher than the WHO standard for
safe river bathing.
•So what is the source
of this tremendous
pollution?
• Majority of Ganges
pollution comes from
organic waste such as
sewage, trash, food,
and human as well as
animal remains
•India's population boom
hasn’t been followed with
appropriate waste-control
infrastructure, and there
hasn't been much effort on
building new sewage systems
& water treatment plants that
should do more than just
channel waste into the river
like current sewage systems
do.
• Human and animal remains also pose
serious environmental and health
threats. The Hindu religion has a
sacred practice of depositing human
remains into the Ganges river, and
since these remains are usually only
partially cremated they pose not only
environmental, but also serious health
threats to the local population,
especially when combined with the
carcasses of thousands of dead cattle
that are also dumped into the river
each year.
• Industrial pollutants
luckily account for much
smaller proportion of
pollution, and this is the
good thing since the
health and environmental
impacts of toxic chemical
waste can be far more
threatening.
• http://www.vocativ.com/culture
/photos/photos-of-the-dead-in-
varanasi-where-the-wealthy-are-
cremated-and-the-poor-are-left-
to-the-vultures/
• This level of pollution makes ideal
ground for many water-borne
diseases including cholera,
hepatitis, typhoid and amoebic
dysentery that are spreading
among the 350 million who live
along its shores or use its water.
According to some estimations
80% of all health problems and
one-third of deaths in India are
result of different water-borne
diseases.
•In 1985 the Indian government launched plan to clean
up the river, the so called "Ganges Action Plan". The
original idea was to clean up the river in selected areas
by installing sewage treatment plants and threatening
fines and litigation against industries that pollute. This
plan turned out to be one great failure since it tried to
adapt a Western style solution to what is turned out to
be non-adaptive region. Since then more than $ 300
million have been spent with very little to account for
and even the federal environment minister said
recently that $1.5 billion more was needed.
•The government has so far made many promises
but failed to deliver the right results. Perhaps the
best reason for optimism could be the Supreme
Court of India since lots of things get done
judicially in India, and there are recent reports
suggesting that legislators are starting to
understand the importance of not discharging
untreated human waste into the Ganges River
which could be the first big step required for
successful fight against pollution.
Ganges River
•This river also
provides fertile
soil for farming
along the India
Ganges River
Valley.
3. China
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSyc72cE32Q
• http://www.buzzfeed.com/davidmack/what-a-difference-a-day-
makes#.gwEBAj0nN
• China’s fast industrial
development & the large
population have created
major problems for the
environment. Pollution has
increased & environmental
resources have been
depleted.
• 7 of the world’s 10 most
populous cities are located
in China.
•In 2008, when Beijing, China was awarded the
Olympics, the city’s air pollution became a big
concern for many of the athletes.
South Korea
•was quickly built up in the late 20th
century. This brought increased pollution.
Air & water were affected. Becoming
industrialized happened quicker than the
government could make policies to
protect the environment.
•25% of the people who live
in South Korea, live in or
around Seoul because of
markets, jobs, and
education that is not
available in rural areas.
India
•India’s main environmental concern is
overpopulation
•It affects many of India’s other issues
•When rural populations increase, deforestation
worsens.
•People use the trees for fuel: especially for
cooking.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAUVGYz3pZw
• http://www.npr.org/2011/10/31/141816460/visualizing-how-a-
population-grows-to-7-billion?ft=3&f=111787346&sc=nl&cc=es-
20111106
• http://www.toby-ng.com/works/the-world-of-100/
The map to the
right shows
just how many
large countries
it would take to
equal the
population of
China.
China has 21
million more
people than the
177 smallest
countries on
earth put
together. Or to
put it another
way, only 33
countries are
excluded from
the map above.
One of which is
India:
• Yet, you can also
look at the
population of
China another
way. India’s
population of
1.252 billion
people plus that
of the
Philippines’
98.39 million
(12th largest)
roughly equals
China’s 1.357
billion people.
• However, with
population growing
faster in India than • http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealti
China, the two me/2011/04/30/china-vs-india-
countries are forecast the-population-numbers/

to meet at roughly 1.4

billion each sometime
before 2030, assuming
of course current
trends continue (they
very well may not).
• Population of India compared to
Africa, United Kingdom and South
Korea combined
• As difficult as it may be to believe,
India has more people than the
continent of Africa (1.111 billion),
United Kingdom (64.1 million) and
South Korea (50.22 million) combined.

• The picture will look quite different by

2050, if current trends continue. At
that point, Africa is projected to have
2.4 billion people, India 1.7 billion,
United Kingdom 71 million and South
Korea 43 million (which could increase
if it reunifies with the north before
then).
• http://buzzive.com/shocking-
images-overpopulation/
•India’s climate is affected by seasonal
winds called monsoons that drop almost
200 inches of rain every 6 months.
•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crsJ
zH_nfwM
Asia’s Environmental Issues
•Air Pollution:
•Coal burning power plants in urban areas
•Cooking over wood or coal in rural areas
•Cooking & heating with biomass fuels
•Water Pollution:
•Yangtze: (China)- chemicals & factories
•Ganges: (India)- organic trash, sewage, remains
used for water & transportation