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CHAPTER 2. SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ASPECTS OF EUTROPHICATION

2.1. Introduction

Clean and safe water is necessary for human beings, as well as all life on Earth. How clean is "clean" and how safe is "safe" regarding the different uses of water? We can answer this question only with the help of scientific judgments. Chemistry, biology, medicine, ecology, and other hard sciences have each a unique role in support of scientific judgments. Technology also provides very important input to the judgment. On the other hand, people have their own values of water, which have been formed by tradition, religion, and culture. Unfortunately, some traditional ways for valuation of water, which are used in developing countries, are not safe for the people or the environment. Therefore current water values and water use pattern must be examined and changed to preserve the aquatic environment as an entire ecosystem, even though the inertia of the present water value and uses is very large. In order to find momentum by which the changes can be initiated, changes, the support of the hard sciences and technology is needed, along with analyses from other types of sciences, such as sociology, anthropology, religion, and economics. It is important to observe social and cultural aspects of water uses in different global societies. In this chapter, an initial step is taken towards integrating the inputs from the hard sciences with those from the social sciences.

Natural and cultural environments interact with each other when societies formulate water practices. Among cultural factors, some religions control water-related practices, such as clean-water acquisition and sanitation. These practices are rooted in past eras, but strongly affect people's present values. Fortunately, no religion sets explicit rules by which sanitation and waste disposal are controlled. Thus, religion probably does not preclude important improvements in water-use practices.

Food and water availability set the boundaries for water-related practices. For example, the method of eating food namely, by fingers, chopsticks, or utensils depends on the type of food and the availability of water for cleaning. The method of eating is also closely tied to the method of personal sanitation, which is directly related to methods of human-waste disposal.

In this chapter, the global societies are analyzed in the following regions: European, Mediterranean, Asian, The Indian subcontinent, South East Asia, China and Korea, Japan, North America, Central and South America, Australia and New Zealand, and Africa regions.

Population in different countries can be classified into four categories, which may help to understand the countries that face difficulties with water related problems. The categories are based on people's income and water availability. Countries belonging to the category, which includes people of low income with limited access to water, are facing a real problem: water is already becoming a serious limiting factor in their socioeconomic development. Whether or not a country has economic capability, it needs trained people to solve water management related problems. Without the allocation of resources for the education and training of scientists and engineers who manage water resources, there is no hope to finding solutions for many problems.

Eutrophication of lakes and reservoirs has been recognized as an important issue in the aquatic environment. There are very limited cases of health problems related to consequences of eutrophication. Although blue green algae emit toxic substances, which can cause death to dogs, sheep and cattle, there are few reports on loss of human life caused by the presence of blue green algae in water. The occurrence of algal toxins in fresh water bodies is discussed in Chapter 1 of this publication. Eutrophication of water bodies is brought about by excess input of nitrogen and phosphorus from human activity on land. Major input of nitrogen and phosphorus comes from agricultural fertilizer run-off and human and industrial wastewater. Human beings need food for their life. Fertilizers can enhance the cultivation of plant food. However, one of the most significant contributions of nitrogen and phosphorus to aquatic environment originates from chemical fertilizers used for food production. Therefore overuse of chemical fertilizers in agricultural practice is one of the main problems of enhancing eutrophication of lakes and reservoirs. Excess input of nitrogen and phosphorus should be controlled in all aspects of human activity in watersheds of lakes or reservoirs. Further discussion of origin and consequences of eutrophication of lakes and reservoirs is provided in Chapter 1 of this publication.

Regarding to sanitation and eutrophication problems, the common basic controlling factor to be considered is the collection of human urine separately from feces, and use of the urine and treated feces as fertilizers in agriculture instead of using chemical fertilizers. In planning sewage treatment, it is easy to construct a new type of sewage system that separates urine and feces at source when an appropriate toilet, similar to that shown in Figure 2.1, is designed, and collect urine by urine pipes and store it in tanks outside houses. Vacuum trucks are available to collect the urine. Feces go to sewage collection pipes with gray water from households. Collected urine can be utilized for agriculture. In areas where sewage treatment is not available due to water scarcity, ecological sanitation practice is recommended. Similarly to the above, urine and feces are separated at source and collected separately for agricultural use.

Figure 2.1. Toilet for separation of urine and feces.

Use of clean water is essential for human beings to live on the Earth. However, water abuse exists in many regions of the world. Water abuse could be avoidable if human beings would understand the status of the aquatic environment from the global point of view. Consequences of water abuse, which can be seen most clearly in lakes and reservoirs, result in severe confrontation among different water uses.

Human beings are selfish when using water, because they only consider water as a necessary resource and seldom think of proper disposal after its use. In many cases people are not aware of their role in the global water cycle. Water abuse comes down to a question of disposal of used water. People tend to see that water acquisition is more important than water disposal. After the water is used, it leaves their attention. In countries with a dry climate and small precipitation, used water disappears into ground or evaporates fast. No apparent pollution of water occurs. In countries with abundant water and wet climate, the contamination of water can be easily solved by dilution of water itself. People tend to think that dilution is the solution of water pollution. However, this is a crude opinion and just an illusion. Among methods for disposal of used materials, the most difficult one is for the disposal of human waste. A human discharges approximately 1l of urine and 500g of feces per day. This amount varies, depending upon climate and food conditions. However, this daily act needs a fundamental solution for disposal.

Developed countries simply rely on the discharge of used water through sewage pipes. Most of the developing countries where sewage treatment is not provided people urinate and defecate in open fields, bushes, on stream banks, etc. The choices for the disposal of human waste appear to be very limited. However, different disposal of water used in cooking, washing clothes, bathing, etc., should be considered. It is important to consider different approaches available to overcome water management problems in global villages. Global villages run their life depending upon their natural and cultural environments. Water use is highly influenced by their environments. This chapter analyzes the use and abuse of water in countries of different natural and cultural backgrounds.

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