About twenty seven lakh metric tons of plastic waste reaches the oceans every year through rivers and the most polluted of these are small rivers originating from urban areas.
Yogesh Kumar Goyal
About twenty seven lakh metric tons of plastic waste reaches the oceans every year through rivers and the most polluted of these are small rivers originating from urban areas. Only one thousand rivers of the world are considered to be primarily responsible for carrying about eighty percent of the plastic waste in the oceans, which is only one percent of the total rivers around the world. The remaining twenty percent of plastic waste is reaching the oceans through thirty thousand other rivers.
There are mainly five oceans on Earth, Pacific, Indian, Atlantic, North Pole and South Pole Ocean. According to environmental experts, on average, one truck of plastic waste is being dumped into the oceans per minute. Apart from this, various harmful chemicals and sewage are also making the condition of the oceans miserable. Billions of tons of plastic waste gets dumped into the oceans every year, which, due to non-melting, remains like this for years and plays a big role in spoiling the health of the oceans. In addition to plastic waste, a large amount of plastic waste in the oceans also contains chemical and other pollutants.
Marine biodiversity is severely affected by the introduction of hundreds of thousands of tons of toxic chemicals into the oceans every day, because they have a very harmful effect on marine life besides the growth of marine flora. Warming of the oceans, lowering of pH value of sea water, lack of supply of nutrients and oxygen, all of which greatly affect the increasing stress on marine ecosystems.
According to environmental scientists, millions of tonnes of heavy metals and saline substances are absorbed every year in the Indian Ocean alone in the Indian subcontinent. Due to these plastic, chemical and other pollutants in the oceans, the oceans are moaning. It also has an adverse effect on the health of all marine organisms. They swallow the plastic waste that ends up in the ocean as their food, due to which many sea creatures have to lose their lives. In fact, many sea creatures, including whales, sea turtles, often eat fishing nets and other plastics, which prove to be very fatal for them.
It has become clear in various studies that the harmful chemicals present in plastics are going through the oceans into the bodies of fish and other marine organisms, which are consumed by about 300 million people around the world, causing harm to their health. The rising levels of pollutants in the bodies of giant marine predators have become a matter of serious concern. This not only shows the effect of increasing chemicals on the ecosystem, but also explains that the amount of these chemicals in our environment is increasing.
Recently, scientists have found large amounts of harmful chemicals in killer whale fish near Norway. According to a research published in the journal ‘Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry’, seven out of eight killer wells were found to contain traces of the banned ‘polychlorinated biphenyl’ (PCB) in high amounts. Researchers found evidence of man-made toxic chemicals-perfluoroalkyl substituents (PFASs) in the tissues of killer wells, which are also known to be harmful to human health.
Scientists say that it is not yet known exactly how much PFAS chemicals can harm the health of marine mammals, but it is certain that these chemicals can affect fertility and their hormones in wild animals. Scientists also found a new type of braminated flame retardants in the tissues of killer wells, which are also passing through them into the bodies of their children.
For the first time, a study led by chemist Ethel Izarat of the Spanish National Research Council has also revealed plastic in the stomach of sea turtles. Researchers analyzed the remains of a total of forty-four such turtles of the endangered Lagerhead species that were found dead on the Catalan coast in eastern Spain and on the seashores of the Balearic Islands. During the study, high levels of plastic particles were found in the muscles and stomach of all these turtles.
The researchers analyzed nineteen compounds present in the plastic, which are known to disrupt the hormone-regulating endocrine system, neurotoxic and carcinogenic. Researchers say that jellyfish, sardines, squid, etc. are the main diet of sea creatures, but they also consume plastic bags, bottle caps, other plastic waste in the oceans, for which there is clear evidence.
As far as the plastic waste that ends up in the oceans is concerned, rivers are a huge source of it. Millions of tons of plastic waste end up in the oceans every year through these. Recently, in the report ‘Plastic Waste Makers Index’ published by an Australian foundation, it has been told that in 2019, 13 million metric tons of plastic reached the oceans.
In another research, it has been told that about twenty seven lakh metric tons of plastic waste reaches the oceans every year through rivers and of these small rivers coming out of urban areas are the most polluted. Only one thousand rivers of the world are considered to be primarily responsible for carrying about eighty percent of the plastic waste in the oceans, which is only one percent of the total rivers around the world. The remaining twenty percent of plastic waste is reaching the oceans through thirty thousand other rivers.
Small and medium-sized rivers play a major role in increasing plastic pollution in the oceans, according to new research. The report said that in various research conducted in 2017, the number of major rivers spreading plastic pollution was between ten and twenty, but in the new research the number of rivers spreading plastic pollution is fifty to one hundred times more. According to researchers, there are four hundred and fifty-four very small rivers carrying about twenty-five percent of the plastic waste in the oceans. Three hundred and sixty small rivers account for twenty four percent, one hundred and sixty two medium-sized rivers twenty two percent, eighteen large rivers two percent and six very large rivers account for about one percent of the waste, while other rivers of various sizes account for twenty-six percent of the plastic waste to the oceans. Delivers.
The research also found that the Philippines ranks first in terms of dumping plastic waste into the ocean, with more than three and a half million metric tons of plastic waste per year through more than forty-eight hundred rivers, while China’s nearly thirteen hundred rivers. More than seventy thousand metric tons of plastic waste is dumped into the oceans every year, more than 1.25 million tons through more than eleven hundred rivers of India and seventy-three thousand metric tons of plastic waste through 1070 rivers of Malaysia.
The oceans are of great importance for our environment and climate, but due to climate change, now the warming of the oceans is increasing, due to which big storms are coming again and again in different oceans. The reason for the severe cyclonic storms like Amfan, Nisarga last year and Taucate and Yas this year has also been considered to be the warming of the sea surface. The Arabian Sea is witnessing cyclones in the pre-monsoon season for four consecutive years from 2018 to 2021. More or less the same is true of other oceans as well. Due to climate change, glaciers in the oceans around the world are also melting rapidly, due to which the sea level is rising, which can cause major devastation in many areas. However, environmental and meteorological scientists are of the clear opinion that regular monitoring of harmful chemicals in the oceans is very important, so that their effects on the environment can be limited.
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