Eutrophication Problem

Problem caused by eutrophication

Eutrophication will normally cause the excess growth of algae, plankton and many other aquatic life, which will absorb most of the nutrients and oxygen in a very short time period and eventually make the organisms in the eutrophicated area die out. In addition, it also cause problem for human living and overall society with those damages.

Effects towards the environment

Eutrophication is likely to cause the decrease in biodiversity, which means the number of different organism in the eutrophicated area would be getting less than before. When nutrient gets into the water, it fertilizes the plants like algae and then causes the algae blooms. When algae grows, a large amount of oxygen is used during the

Thenceforth, the polluted water will need to go through complicated process to make it safe. But in many cases, because of the vast amount of money needed for the purification of water, people more often will ignore the current situation and the algae will therefore spread into widen areas. According to Hinews’s news article published on Apr. 1th 2015, the potato industry in Ningxia, China is causing the main catchment area nearby to be polluted and appearing the state of eutrophication. The pollution source—potato starch industries, are making a massive amount of benefits to the local potato farmers, but some of the factories are forced to shut down due to the overloaded wastewater production. The profit of producing starch is low, most of the factory cannot afford the expensive equipment to have the purification of the wastewater. This type of situation can be considered as the subsidiary effects from the agriculture.

Apart from that, the eutrophication sometimes happens in the area for farmers to breed fish or water crops like rice. This will cause the crop failure and the farmers’ income will reduce. As mentioned in the introduction, China is a country based on agriculture; therefore the decline of farmers’ income will result in a large impact to the total economy of

Government control

In year 2004, the State Environmental Protection Administration of China published a policy to resolve the problem of eutrophication called “Lake eutrophication control technology policy”. The purpose of this policy is to achieve the criteria below in around 30 years.

1. Limit the growth of eutrophication

2. Maintain the quality of water in lakes and reservoirs

3. Keep ecology in a virtuous cycle

4. Keep the economy around the water source with a sustainable development The main goals are to: control all industrial wastewater with a limited amount in China in year 2010 with the sewage disposal rate of 70%; put reasonable industrial set-up around the lake region in year 2020 with the sewage disposal rate of 80%; manage all agricultural relating industries around the lake region to use a proper amount of fertilizer in year 2030 with the sewage disposal rate of 90%. In addition to that, this policy also gives the specific focus points of the process. With the prevention and control towards the point source and non-point source pollution, the reparation of polluted region, and the protection towards the water source that are in a good