Water Pollution
The water pollution is one of the major environmental issues in France. It is not as big a problem as it is for more populous countries such as China, but it is still a problem for France and for Europe.
According to the a French website called “Public water service”, the water in France is mostly used for Agriculture (68%), Personal usage (24%), and for Industry (8%).
About 1.5 million people in France consume polluted water.
According to the a French website called “Public water service”, the water in France is mostly used for Agriculture (68%), Personal usage (24%), and for Industry (8%).
About 1.5 million people in France consume polluted water.
- Agriculture
Almost 70% of the water used in France is for Agriculture. They need it for two principle reasons:
-Animal breeding: Big quantities of water and energy are needed for the animals diets.
-Irrigation: Big irrigation to have as much production as they can.
Source: http://www.gopixpic.com/
There are many other pollutants from Agriculture, but on this website you will learn specifically about pesticides.
Pesticides usage
According to European Food Safety Authority/EFSA ( http://www.efsa.europa.eu/ ), France is the largest user of pesticides in Europe. How do pesticides affect the water?
When pesticides are spread on the ground, many different things happen: - They can infiltrate in the ground as you can see on the figure, and are leached to the water sources - When they don't infiltrate, they can go directly to the water source; this is called run off When the pesticides are in the water, they are polluting it, but they are also vaporized to the atmosphere (on the figure) and are then redeposited by rainfall. Source: www.slideshare.net |
What is a pesticide ? Pesticides are chemicals product that the agriculturists use for their production. It is used for kill parasites in the crops: Insects, fungi and weeds. It also helps to product better and bigger productions faster. |
- Industry
Industries produce a lot of pollutants, such as solvents, hydrocarbons, detergents, and many others, but the largest industrial pollutant is the BOD (biochemical oxygen demand). It is a product for extracting the oxygen from the water via chemical reaction.
Industries are the largest source of the air pollution. If you want to learn about air pollution, click on this button