How To Clean Rivers?

[Banned Member]

http://www.yahoo.com/s/504435

That article is about the Ganges River of India.

As it states, about 1 person dies every minute on the Ganges Delta due to water-borne disease or illness.

In addition, the river is probably full of trash, pollution, chemicals, and probably even dead bodies.

If you were an enviromentalist how would you handle this problem?

My Idea:

Take a few boats and attach a net-like device at the back, then just go down the river to catch any larger items of plastic, etc. in it.

Any other idea's? How can they kill off bacteria in the river, but still allow people to bathe in it (Some religions consider it holy) and swim in its waters?

UV lights?

Thanks to anybody who helps me.

This is for an Enviromental Studies class by the way. We may be doing research and actually going there.

By the way - Read my signature if you're wondering. I'm not banned, I just think its an odd/interesting username to have.

 

[JahJahwarrior]

I've heard of people taking silk clothes, folding them over themselves multiple times, then running the water through that cloth before drinking. Get water from river in one pot, put cloth folded 8 time sor so over lid, poor into new pot, drink. That strains out many bad things, I think.

When i went to Mexico on a missions trip we added 2-3 drops of household bleach into every quart or so of water. No one that did that got ill, those that didn't, a few got sick. Could have been from food though, you never know. It made your throat feel a little wierd, but you got used to it and you knew after it sat for a minute or two that it was pretty darn safe to drink.

You can also build a sand filter. Some people use those instead of chlorine to keep their pool clean.

The bleach idea works well, but in remote places it'd be better to have something that you didn't have to get from the outside world.

 

[fisherdvm]

I think the problem is poverty, and not of floating large trash. We have sent tonnes of toxic trash to this continent and they are gladly accepting it for the money. Indirectly, the modern western countries are contributing to the environmental problems in the continent of india. I think it is a religious custom to burn the deceased and send the body down the river.

It is very hard to change religion and culture.

 

[Cacia]

very original thread!

We have a super-sucker vacume here in Hawaii, mostly use for alien algae.

 

[Arcaporale]

There is nothing humans alone can do to really "clean" the crap out of the water, sure U/V lights, and filters can do the job but that is unfeasable and even that can have a negative effect on the environment. Like all things in nature, the river will naturally clean itself, but it takes alot of time, and before that can happen we need to stop the pollution at it's source. Fertilizers from farming, soaps from household use, chemicals from surface runoff, and untreated sewage are just some of the major reasons for the pollution, also dumping from industry is hardly regulated over there. If they can start by making sure this stuff doesn't get into their water in the first place, then they can begin environmental remediation and can use certian types of plants and trees planted along the river banks to help soak up that crap from the water. They will also need to dredge the mud from the river bottom is some spots and remove the toxins from the mud. However India is a long way from this, they first need to get their booming population under control, because more people means more pollution. Also India and other industrializing third world nations don't have the same laws found in North America and Europe and generally ignore international environmental law, because they feel that we are trying to stop their economic growth. Lastly all this is very expensive.

 

[SteveAD]

The solution is easy in concept, much harder in application. Stop dumping bad stuff into it and any river will clean itself in a few years. This is unlikely to happen any time soon though because it would require tho construction of not only wastewater treatment plants, but also sewer systems to get the waste to the plants. Not to mention industrial waste. For years we in the US got rid of all of our nasty stuff by dumping it into rivers, and we ended up with some pretty nasty rivers. Our rivers are in much better shape now because we have cleaned up our act with regard to what we dump, but very little was ever done to go out and clean the mess that had been made. The environment can fix itself if only we can stop trying so hard to screw it up.

 

[Arcaporale]

... Indirectly, the modern western countries are contributing to the environmental problems in the continent of india...

I'm not sure about that one. We have a much larger indudtrial base than India, but somehow we manage to be alot cleaner in all regards. People in india don't get their cars smog checked (for those who do have cars). There are also little to no regulations on emissions from factories and other industry. Although we may purchase alot of products from India and other dirty countries, they ultimately chose how to spend the money, and it's never spent on trying to keep the Ganges clean.

 

[knotical]

Why not recognize the root cause of this and many other problems, not just in India? Overpopulation worldwide.

 

[DennisS]

The Miami River is facing this problem. Chemicals, heavy metals from the boatyards that blasted lead and copper paint, oil, hydrocarbons, batteries etc that are the result of shipping and industry, have formed a base on the bottom of the river over the years.

Current pollution standards prohibit dumping these items in the river but that wasn't always the case. There is a layer of sediment over all the old stuff. The river drains into Biscayne Bay, a nursery for juvenile fish and shrimp. If they dredge the river it will stir up the old contaminants. If they leave it be, all those contaminants will slowly leach out. If they dredge this toxic mess, where do they put it. Should something be done or leave the sediment as is, to be encapsulated by mud.

Where would you put the toxic sedimennt, 7-8 miles, 5-6 foot deep. It's not always a simple answer.

The river does have what looks like a small landing craft. Two guys stand forward and retrieve, palm fronds, garbage bags, dead dogs and the occasional body.