In 2002, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights, the Covenant’s supervisory body,
adopted a General Comment stating “the right to water
clearly falls within the category of guarantees essential for
securing an adequate standard of living, particularly since it is
one of the most fundamental conditions for survival.”
Why does defining water as a human right make a
difference?
Ensuring that access to sufficient safe water is a human right constitutes
an important step towards making it a reality for everyone. It means that:
● fresh water is a legal entitlement, rather than a commodity or service
provided on a charitable basis;
● achieving basic and improved levels of access should be accelerated;
● the “least served” are better targeted and therefore inequalities
decreased;
● communities and vulnerable groups will be empowered to take part in
decision-making processes;
● the means and mechanisms available in the United Nations human
rights system will be used to monitor the progress of States Parties in
realizing the right to water and to hold governments accountable.
Worldwide net renewable water distribution by region and per
capita.
Data as of early 1990s.
source: www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/offrep/mena/Focus/BOOKLET.ARA.html]
Region
Net Annual Renewable
Population
Water Resources
(Billions cubic meters)
(millions)
Oceania
769
21
Latin America
10,766
466
North America
5,379
287
Easter Europe1
7,256
495
Africa
4,184
559
Western Europe
1,985
383
Asia
9,985
3,041
MENA2
355
284
1
2
includes Central Asia Middle East/North Africa
Per capita Water
Availability
(cubic meters)
36,619
23,103
18,742
14,659
7,485
5,183
3,283
1,250
Urbanization and Water
  Water is a key issue in urban areas.
  The intensity of demand in cities can quickly
exceed local supply.
  The price of water is typically lower than the
actual cost of obtaining, treating and distributing
it, partly because of government subsidies.
 Pollution from urban run-off, sewage and
untreated discharges of industries has adversely
affected many water bodies, leaving many cities
with unsafe water supply.
Urbanization and Water
•
•
•
•
•
Sewers and drains
Runoff
Erosion
Pollutants
Water and health
Water Runoff
• Urbanization has had significant impacts
on the hydrology of the environment by
controlling:
• Nature of runoff (water from
precipitation or irrigation that does not
evaporate or seep into the soil but flows
into rivers, streams, or lakes, and may
carry sediment);
• Rates of soil erosion; and
• Delivery of pollutants to rivers,
streams, lakes and ocean.
AMDC Land Cover
• Impervious surfaces and sewers cause
runoff after a rainstorm to occur more
rapidly and with a greater peak flow that
under non-urban conditions.
Sewers and Drains
• Sewers and drains carry domestic and industrial
wastes that might have been widely deposited on
the soil, but have been channeled into rivers and
other bodies of water.
• The storm sewer system is designed to carry the
excess water that flows over land during and after
a rainfall directly into a river, stream or lake.
• The sanitary sewer system carries sewage from
residential, commercial, and industrial sources to
the waste water treatment plant.
• At a waste water treatment plant most harmful
substances are removed from sewage before it is
piped to a nearby body of water.
Illicit Connection
• viewgraph
Effect of urbanization on floods
• Urbanization increases the intensity and decreases
the lag time of floods.
• In unurbanized areas small floods occur
frequently, while large flood events occur
infrequently.
• Urbanization increases the frequency of small
floods.
• The size of small floods is increased by
urbanization, while during large, infrequent floods
there are no significant differences between the
way rural and urban areas behave.
EROSION
• Runoff on bareland leads to erosion.
• Grass, trees and other plants hold the soil in place
and avoid erosion.
• The highest rates of erosion are produced in urban
areas during construction.
• Erosion is the source of sediment that fills
streams, pollutes water, kills aquatic life, and
shortens the useful life of dams and reservoirs.
Rates of erosion
• viewgraph
Table 2: Comparison of containment profiles for the
urban surface runoff and raw domestic sewage, based
on surveys throughout USA
Urban
surface runoff
Raw
domestic
sewage
250 - 300
150 - 250
10 - 250
300 - 350
(a) Total nitrogen
0.5 - 5.0
25 - 85
(b) Total phosphorus
0.5 - 5.0
2 - 15
10^4 - 10^6
10^6 or greater
20 - 100
15 - 75
(a) Oil and grease
yes
yes
(b) Heavy metals
(10 - 100)
times sewage
conc.
traces
yes
seldom
potential exists
seldom
Constituent *
Suspended solids
BOD #
Nutrients
Coliform bacteria
(MPN/100 ml)
Chlorides
Nutrients
(c) Pesticides
(d) Other toxins
* All concentrations are expressed in mg l^-1 unless stated otherwise
# Biochemical oxygen demand
MPN - Most probable number
Water Pollution
• Point source pollution
– Industrial plant effluent pipe
• Non-Point source pollution
– Surface runoff from precipitation; responsible
for most pollution.
Pollution includes:
Chemicals, sediments, heat, disease causing
organisms
Water Pollutants
• Suspended solids – decrease in
photosynthesis
• Coliform Bacteria – if present in amounts
greater than 200 colonies/ml of water, it is
likely that other pathogens are present.
• Chlorides – salt for de-icing
• Phosphorus and nitrogen – plant nutrients
Biochemical Oxygen Demand
Oxygen enters water by:
•Ocean Spray
•Waves
•Photosynthesis of
algae and large aquatic
plants
Oxygen depletion by:
O2
Dissolved
in Water
Decomposition of organic
material by bacteria
Respiration of organisms
Enhancement in Dissolved Nutrients (phosphorus and nitrogen)
Cultural
Eutrophication
Algae growth
Decomposition
by bacteria
Depletion of O2
Solutions to Runoff in Urban
Areas
• viewgraph
Health Effects of Pollutants
The relationship between water resources and health has occupied a position
of special significance throughout human history.
Sewage
Industrial Pollutants
Infectious
Diseases
Non-infectious
Diseases- cancers, infertility
thyroid dysfunction, birth defects,
behavior problems, immune system
suppression, deformities, etc.
Common diseases transmitted to humans through contaminated drinking
water. From Miller (1995).
Type of Organism Disease
Bacteria
Typhoid fever
Cholera
Bacterial
dysentery
Enteritis
Viruses
Parasitic Protozoa
Parasitic worms
Infectious
hepatitus
Amoebic
dysentery
Giardia
Schistosomiasis
Effects
Diarrhea, severe vomiting, enlarged spleen,
inflamed intestine; often fatal if untreated
Diarrhea, severe vomiting, dehydration, often
fatal if untreated
Diarrhea, rarely fatal except in infants without
proper treatment
Severe stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, rarely
fatal
Fever, severe headache, rarely fatal but may
cause permanent liver damage
Severe diarrhea, headache, fever, if not treated
can cause liver damage and death
Diarrhea, cramps, flatulence, fatigue
Abdominal pain, rash, anemia, chronic fatigue
Health Effects of Pollutants
Synthetic
chemicals in
pesticides and
industrial
products have
been identified
as hormone
disruptors
Like hormones, these chemicals affect
the endocrine systems of animals and
humans in minute amounts – parts
per trillion.
A vast number of man-made chemicals and chemical by-products have been
identified as potential hazards. Some environmental groups and scientists have
focused attention on:
dioxins
PCBs
DDT and its metabolites
Other Pesticides (including other organochlorines, and the triazines)
alkylphenol ethoxylates
PVC products
bisphenol-A, phthalates
pulp and paper production effluents
spermicides and condom lubricants
Hormone Disruptors
•Mimic naturally produced hormones such as estrogen and
testosterone.
•Hormone blockers “lock up” a cell receptor”preventing
naturally produced hormones from entering and performing
their function.
•Trigger set off reactions in the cell that would not normally
be produced by a hormone. Dioxin acts this way.
Hormone Disruptors
• Mostly affects the offsprings of exposed
organisms.
• Health effects on humans include lower sperm
counts, undescended testicles, early puberty, and
thyroid dysfunction.
• In wildlife, the health impacts include smaller
penises, and/or testicle size, undescended testicles,
lower sperm count, reproductive abnormalities,
thyroid dysfunction, feminization of males or
masculinization of females.
Where do we find them?
• Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals such as
nonylphenol, alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEs)
and phthalates are often found in common
household items, such as detergents,
cosmetics, household cleaners as well as
even plastic food containers.
• Several pesticides contain known or
suspected endocrine disrupters that enter our
bodies through residues on food. Heavy
metals like lead, mercury and cadmium may
be tracked in from outdoors.
The Economics of Pollution Control at
the Local and Global Levels
•
•
•
•
•
The efficient level of pollution control
Government intervention
Clean Air Act/Clean Water Act
Emission control policies
Reducing pollution at the global level
The Montreal and Kyoto Protocols
Environmental Economics views
the economy in which we live
and work as an “open system”.
Process
Resources
Resource
Depletion
Dispose of large amounts
of dissipated and/or
chemically transformed
resources back into the
Pollution
environment.
Extract resources from the environment
- renewable and exhaustible resources
Why do we pollute?
Pollution –waste that has been disposed off in the air, in water, or on
land, and that reduces the value of those resources for alternative uses.
In the case of air and water pollution, the damage
is done because they are open access resources,
i.e. no one owns them, and there is no
individual incentive to restrict pollution.
Pollution reduction is an economic
problem: How much money are we
willing to spend to reduce pollution?
• Ideal world – no pollution –costs would be very
high
• The other extreme is to live in a world with no
pollution control
• The real world is somewhere in between these two
extremes, i.e., it is necessary to achieve a balance
between the costs and social benefits of reducing
pollution.
Efficient Pollution Control
The efficient level of Pollution Control strikes a balance between
the Social Benefit and the Social Cost involved in reducing pollution.
Marginal
social cost
The efficient level of pollution
control corresponds to the percent
reduction in polluting emissions
for which the marginal social benefit
equals the marginal social cost.
Marginal social
benefit
0
80
100%
Reduction in polluting emissions
(percent per year)
Social benefits are measured by the reduction in damages caused by Pollution
to human health and to natural resources.
Costs and Benefits of CFC
control in the United States
Costs of reducing CFC emissions (in billions 1985$)
Costs
1989-2075 discounted at 2%
Health and environment benefits
Net benefit
No control
0
0
0
Source: US Environmental Protection Agency (1988)
80% cut in emissions
22
3553
3531
The Montreal Protocol
• The Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone
layer, signed in 1987, established a timetable for
diminishing CFC emissions and the use of bromine
compounds, both of which destroy ozone.
• In November 1992, representatives from half the
nations of the world met in Copenhagen to revise the
treaty. Provisions of the meeting called for a quicker
phase-out of the previously targeted ozonedestroying chemicals.
NO POLLUTION CONTROL
Production
of
Goods
Environmental
Pollution
Cost of
Production
Negative
Externality
Consumer
Taxpayer
Costs:
Cleaning environment
Health problems
Mechanisms to achieve pollution reduction
Free market transactions are usually unregulated:
there is no mechanism for charging polluters a fee
to correct for the damage done by their emissions.
Society decides on
an acceptable level of
environmental quality
Government
Intervention
Government Intervention:
Subsidies based on Cost-Benefit Analysis
Industrial
Production
Reduced
Environmental
Emissions
Cost of
Production
Consumer
Taxpayer
Subsidies:
•Tax Incentives
•Credits
Government Intervention: Regulations
Government
Regulated
Industrial
Production
Reduced
Environmental
Pollution
Cost of production
Consumer
(Possibly increased)
What is the Clean Air Act?
The Clean Air Act is the federal law designed to
make sure that all Americans have air that is safe
to breathe.
Main Goals:
• Public health protection is the primary goal.
• The law also seeks to protect our environment
from damage caused by air pollution.
When was the Clean Air Act passed?
Congress passed the core provisions of the Clean Air Act in 1970.
The law was amended in 1977 and again in 1990 to extend
deadlines but also to specify new strategies for cleaning up the
air.
The basic framework of the law and its public health objective
have remained intact.
How does the Clean Air Act work?
The Clean Air Act requires that:
• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sets national healthbased air quality standards to protect against common pollutants
including ozone (smog), carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen
dioxide, lead, and particulate soot. EPA is directed to review these
standards every five years.
• State governments must devise cleanup plans to meet the
health standards by a specific date. Areas with the worst smog
have a longer time to meet the standards.
How does the Clean Air Act work?
• In addition, the EPA sets national standards for major
new sources of pollution including automobiles, trucks
and electric power plants.
• The agency also is charged with developing controls for
major sources of toxic pollutants, such as benzene.
How well has the Clean Air Act worked?
By any objective measurement, the act has been a tremendous
success:
• The air is cleaner and public health has improved.
• Emissions of toxic lead have dropped 98 percent.
• Emissions of sulfur dioxide have dropped by 35 percent
even though the gross domestic product has more than doubled.
• Emissions of carbon monoxide have dropped by 32 percent even
though driving has increased 127 percent.
• Even so, many areas of the country still violate the basic health
standards, and the health of tens of millions of Americans
remains at risk.
1997 Changes to the Clean Air Act
In 1997, EPA completed its review of standards for 2 of the 6
specific pollutants covered by the CAA, and promulgated new,
more stringent standards for PM and ozone.
The new ozone standard lowered both the amount of ozone that
can be detected and expanded the monitoring time to eight hours,
referred to as the "8-hour ozone standard".
"For particulate matter", EPA added to its current standards a limit
on the amounts of fine particulates (smaller than 2.5 micrometers)
that can be detected over a twenty-four hour period.
Update on the Clean Air Act
The Clean Air Act requires new power plants to install state-of-theart pollution controls, and lets power plants constructed before
1978 cough up otherwise illegal levels of pollutants until the plants
are renovated.
The Bush administration plan effectively repeals these air quality
safeguards. Exemptions are not limited to power plants, but are
available to plants in any industry sector.
The net effect of these change is an increase in SO2 and NOx
over the levels expected under the current law.
Top Polluters
Fifty-one American power plants, emit a disproportionate
amount of pollution.
Total emission from 500 plants, 1999 in millions of tons.
Updates on the Clean Air Act
• Power plants are the largest source of
US global warming pollution,
responsible for 40% of US carbon
dioxide emissions.
• The current administration policy allows
power plant CO2 pollution to continue to
increase, relying instead on voluntary
approaches.
Updates to the Clean Air Act
• Power plants are the largest uncontrolled source of mercury.
According to the Clean Air Act, each power plant must install the
maximum achievable control technology (MACT) for mercury
emissions and other toxic air pollutant by the end of 2007, and
then further limit any unacceptable health risks that remain.
EPA estimates that enforcing current law could cut power plant
mercury pollution by nearly 90% by 2008.
Administration policies eliminate current law’s health protection
for mercury and other toxic air pollutants. Mercury reductions
are delayed and diluted, allowing power plant to emit more than
5 times as much mercury for a decade longer.
The Clean Water Act
The Clean Water Act (CWA), intended to ". . .restore and maintain
the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation's
waters".
To accomplish that objective, the act aimed to attain a level of
water quality that "provides for the protection and propagation of
fish, shellfish, and wildlife, and provides for recreation in and on
the water" by 1983 and to eliminate the discharge of pollutants
into navigable waters by 1985.
The CWA has five main elements:
(1) A system of minimum national effluent standards for each
industry.
The CWA requires the EPA to establish effluent limitations for the
amounts of specific pollutants that may be discharged by
municipal sewage plants and industrial facilities.
(2) Water quality standards.
The two-step approach to setting the standards includes:
(a) establishing a nationwide, base-level treatment through an
assessment of what is technologically and economically
achievable for a particular industry and
(b) requiring more stringent levels of treatment for specific plants if
necessary to achieve water quality objectives for the particular
body of water into which that plant discharges.
(3) A discharge permit program that translates these standards
into enforceable limits.
Under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
program any person responsible for the discharge of a pollutant or
pollutants into any waters of the United States from any point
source must apply for and obtain a permit.
(4) Provisions for special problems such as toxic chemicals and oil
spills, and
(5) A revolving construction loan program for publicly-owned
treatment works.
Update on the Clean Water Act
• For many years following the passage of
CWA in 1972, EPA, and states focused
mainly on the chemical aspects of the
"integrity" goal.
• Also, in the early decades of the Act's
implementation, efforts focused on regulating
discharges from traditional "point source"
facilities, such as municipal sewage plants
and industrial facilities, with little attention
paid to runoff from streets, construction sites,
farms, and other sources.
Update on the Clean Water Act
• Starting in the late 1980s, efforts to address polluted
runoff have increased significantly. For "nonpoint"
runoff, voluntary programs, including cost-sharing
with landowners are the key tool. For "wet weather
point sources" like urban storm sewer systems and
construction sites, a regulatory approach is being
employed.
• Evolution of CWA programs over the last decade has
also included something of a shift from a program-byprogram, source-by-source, pollutant-by-pollutant
approach to more holistic watershed-based
strategies.
Latest Development on the CWA
On January 15, 2003 the EPA and the Corps of Engineers issued
“guidance” and advance notice of a “proposed rule” that have
critical implications for the types of wetlands, streams, lakes and
ponds that are entitled to federal protection under the Clean Water
Act.
Stripping those waters of protection will open the way for
developers, agribusiness, industry, and other polluters to
discharge their pollution into, and fill in and develop, many kinds
of wetlands, small streams, ponds or other waters.
On 12/16/03 the EPA withdrew the proposal to weaken the Clean
Water Act.
Emission Control Policies
Emission charges are prices established for the
right to emit a unit of a pollutant.
Emission standards are limits established by
government on the annual amounts and kinds
of pollutants that can be emitted into the air or
water by producers or users of certain
products.
Command and control regulation: a system or
rule that requires the use of specific pollution
control devices on certain sources of pollution
or applies strict emission standards to specific
emitters.
• Emission offsets allows a new firm to be established
in an area where additional polluting emissions
resulting from the firms operations normally would
prevent the firm from being approved by EPA. Under
this policy the new firm, before it is approved, most
induce other firms in the area to reduce emissions
usually through a cash payment.
• The Bubble allows a firm to exceed the amount of
emission of a pollutant if it reduces another pollutant
by more than the current standard.
• Banking of emissions: a firm that emits less than the
specified level of a pollutant is given a credit that
allows them to emit more than the standard at some
time in the future. The firm is also allowed to sell
these credits for cash to other firms who want to
exceed the standards.
Pollution rights: a government-issued permit allowing a firm
to emit a specified quantity of polluting waste.Ex. Michigan’s
Air Emissions Trading Program.
Advantages:
•Pollution permits are tradable at free market prices.
•Regulatory authorities can control the amount of pollution by
limiting the number of certificates.
•Provides a choice: purchase permits and pollute or reduce
pollution and save the cost of permits.
•Provides an incentive to reduce emissions in order to sell
previously purchased pollution rights.
Disadvantages:
•A firm in a very polluted region is allowed to buy emission
permits from a firm in a region where there is no pollution.
Failure of Government Intervention
• They may favor the interests of some part of the
community rather than the community as a whole.
• Governments are not very good at obtaining the
right information about the full consequences of a
particular action.
• They may have problems translating good
intentions into practice because of lack of
competence among the government bureaucracy.
Reducing pollution at the global level
In some instances pollution is the result of
activities at the global level and nations
may be required to implement
international agreements that address
current pollution practices:
• The Montreal Protocol
• The Kyoto Protocol
Definitions:
• Protocol – A preliminary memorandum often formulated and
signed by diplomatic negotiators as a basis for a final
convention or treaty; examples: Montreal Protocol, the Kyoto
Protocol on Climate Change.
• Convention – An agreement between states for regulation of
matters affecting all of them (Merriam Webster’s Collegiate
Dictionary, Tenth Edition); example: The United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Party – a state which has consented to be bound by a treaty and for which the
treaty is in force.
Date of adoption – when states participating in the negotiation of a treaty agree
on its final form and content.
Date of signature – when a state expresses its consent to be bound by a treaty.
Date of ratification – when a state makes a final formal expression of its
consent to be bound by a treaty.
Date of entry into force – when a treaty becomes binding upon the states which
have expressed their willingness to be bound by it. This is usually triggered by
a clause in the text of the treaty saying something like “ this treaty shall enter
into force when n states have signed it …”.
Comparison between Ozone Depletion
and Global Climate Change Issues
Ozone Depletion
Global Climate
Change
Causes and
well understood
a lot of
consequences
uncertainties
of inaction
and
discrepancies
Response
Montreal Protocol: Kyoto Protocol:
relatively little far-reaching,
impact on
costly and
economies
controversial
and lifestyles
changes