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Water Quality Legislation and Policy for Phosphorus Pollution Control
Abstract
The current water policies for wastewater treatment worldwide require Phosphorus (P) removal only for large municipal sewage treatment plants. Despite the recognition of agriculture as the major contributor to phosphorus pollution worldwide, the regulatory framework that would require reduction in phosphorus pollution from agricultural farm effluents and runoff does not exist anywhere in the world. Instead, when dealing with the P pollution from agricultural sources, water directives and/or national policies prescribes particular compliance options for the ‘best possible measures’, ‘best management practices’ (BMPs) or ‘good practices’ leaving it to national regulators and permitting agencies to determine what these measures and practices are. However these practices are typically recommended, not required, so practical implementation is principally voluntary in nature and offered via various governmental monetary subsidies. This general absence of water policy to address P pollution issues from residential, agricultural, and urban stormwater effluents and runoff creates complex issues and a significant gap in the development of novel technologies to reduce and minimize P pollution from these sources. Moreover, even when attempts are made to develop novel methods and technologies for P removal from these non‐regulated point and nonpoint pollution sources (NPS), their practical implementation is dependent on the approvals from appropriate governmental regulatory agencies. However, because P pollution originating from these sources is not regulated, most of the environmental technology verification (ETV) programmes do not even have testing procedures for P removal technologies aiming to reduce pollution from these sources. In the few instances where the actual procedures exist, and/or where regulators are willing to consider novel technology's performance evaluation, verification, and approval, the costs are prohibitively expensive and time consuming. Therefore this chapter provides an overview of water legislation and policies for P pollution reduction and control in the USA, Europe, Brazil, China, and India. In addition it will describe ETV processes for each of these regions highlighting the major challenges, obstacles, and issues related to P innovative technologies verification, approval, and market introduction.
... Lack of water available in the region leads to farmers relying on well and spring water sources for consumption, the agrochemicals washed away from the soil can leech into the waterway pathways leading to groundwater consumption being contaminated. Phosphorus is identified as one of the key elements that causes "eutrophication" of the water quality and increases the risk of water drying out in the region [12]. Nitrogen is another element that harms the ecosystem, excessive nitrogen can lead to over stimulation of aquatic plants and algae formation which competes for oxygen with other organisms. ...
Chronic kidney disease of unknown origin (CKDu) is a global burden among the agricultural communities, this is a non-communicable disease (NCD) which is asymptomatic and irreversible until latter stages of the disease. The disease has no common features unlike chronic kidney diseases (CKD's) making early detection impossible in the patients. The most recent form of CKDu was reported in India, known as the Indian CKDu in late 2010's. In Sri Lanka, CKDu is highly prevalent in the north central province of the country with nearly15.1%-22.9% presented with the disease. This region is a dry-zone in which agricultural and farming activities are carried out as the main occupation. Several studies have been carried out linking CKDu to various factors such as heavy metals in water, agrochemicals, heat, dehydration and socio-demographics in NCP. Despite several researches being conducted none of them were able to prove the root cause and causative factors of the disease. Using the available articles online, studies from countries such as India, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka and South America were chosen in which heat stress, dehydration, heavy metal involvement, agrochemicals were common causative factors reported in these geographical locations. Several studies analyzed indicate that the affected CKDu population were part of the agricultural community in rural areas with less or no proper high school education and family history with CKDu. Recent findings do suggest that a combination study involving socio-demographical data and geographical data will help to end the CKDu debate worldwide and provide new insights into early diagnosis.
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