IN
DEGREE PROJECT TECHNOLOGY,
FIRST CYCLE, 15 CREDITS ,
STOCKHOLM SWEDEN 2017
The Atoyac River
A study about its problems and possible future
solutions from a sustainable perspective
STEPHANIE THE
ANTON BLOMQVIST
Abstract
Because of extensive industrial and domestic wastewater discharge, the Atoyac river has become one of Mexico's most polluted rivers. The aim of the paper is to investigate the contaminations of the river due to the different polluters and what impacts it has on the environment and society. Further the paper aims to identify necessary solutions in order to restore the river to its natural state, within a sustainable point of view, by using the model of sustainable development proposed by Peter Glavič and Rebeka Lukman (2007). The study is based on literature reviews, where it was concluded that the Atoyac river is polluted by different contaminations such as BOD, coliforms, metals, heavy metals and toxic chemicals, which has affected the environment, ecosystem services, people's health and agriculture in a negative way. There is an understanding that violating social and environmental aspects will also have an impact on the economy in the long run in form of sick workforce, loss of necessary ecosystem services and the cost for repairing the environmental damages. It was investigated that if change and effective actions are to be achieved within a sustainable development approach, methods/tools such as Purification, Polluters Pays Principle, Pollution Control, Waste Minimization, Cleaner Production,
Environmental Legislation and Environmental Engineering, suggested by Glavič and Lukman (2007) need to be assimilated. These tools were connected to an earlier stage of suggested potential solutions of big variety. The paper also concludes that the progress towards
sustainability in the case of the Atoyac river and Mexico in general lies on a very fundamental level and still has a long way to go.
Keywords: Río Atoyac, water contamination, environmental impact, sustainable development
Area of subject:
Sammanfattning
På grund av omfattande utsläpp av industriellt och privat avloppsvatten har floden Atoyac blivit en av Mexikos mest förorenade floder. Syftet med denna rapport är att utvärdera flodens många föroreningar och se vilka konsekvenser dessa har för miljön och samhället. Utöver detta
identifieras nödvändiga lösningar för att återställa floden till dess naturliga skick inom ett hållbarhetsperspektiv, genom att använda modellen för hållbar utveckling som föreslagits av Peter Glavič och Rebeka Lukman (2007). Rapporten är baserad på litteraturstudier, och detta ledde till slutsatsen att Atoyac är förorenat av olika föroreningar som BOD, koliforma bakterier, metaller, tungmetaller och giftiga kemikalier, vilka har påverkat miljön, ekosystemtjänster,
människors hälsa och jordbruket på ett negativt sätt. Det är även tydligt att den negativa effekten på samhället och miljön även kommer att påverka ekonomin på lång sikt i form av
sjukskrivningar, förlust av ekosystemtjänster samt kostnader för att reparera miljöskador. Om en förändring ska uppnås inom ramen för en hållbar utvecklingsstrategi, föreslås metoder/verktyg så som Purification, Polluters Pays Principle, Pollution Control, Waste Minimization, Cleaner Production, Environmental Legislation and Environmental Engineering som Glavič och
Lukman föreslagit (2007). I denna studie drar man även slutsatsen att Atoyac, och även Mexiko i allmänhet, har en lång väg kvar att gå för att uppnå en hållbar situation.
Nyckelord: Río Atoyac, vattenföroreningar, miljökonsekvens, hållbar utveckling
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ... 1
1.1 The water situation in Mexico ... 1
1.2 Puebla ... 1
1.3 Río Atoyac ... 2
1.4 Aim and objectives ... 2
1.5 Limitations ... 2
2. Methodology ... 3
2.1 General methodology ... 3
2.2 Sustainable development ... 3
2.3 Discussion of sources ... 5
3. Result ... 5 3.1 Polluters ... 5 3.1.1 Industries ... 6 3.1.2 Domestic wastewater ... 7 3.2 Contamination ... 7 3.2.1 Physicochemical parameters ... 7 3.2.2 Metals ... 9 3.2.3 Microbiology ... 9 3.2.4 Toxicity ... 10
3.3 Laws and regulations ... 11
3.4 Impacts of bad water quality ... 12
3.5.1. Impacts on the environment ... 12
3.5.2. Impacts on humans ... 14
3.5.3 Effects on agriculture ... 15
Abbreviations
BOD = Biochemical Oxygen Demand COD = Chemical Oxygen Demand
CONAGUA = Comisión Nacional del Agua MPL = Maximum Permitted Level
MPN = Most Probable Number
SEMARNAT = Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales TDS = Total Dissolved Solids
TSS = Total Suspended Solids TU = Toxic Unit
1. Introduction
This chapter will give a brief introduction to the thesis and how it has been conducted, with aims, objectives and limitations. It will also give an introduction to the country of Mexico with its rivers, the state Puebla and most importantly the Atoyac river, which is what the thesis will focus on.
In 2015, Mexico is still not seen as a developed country, due to the fact that it still hasn’t reached the desirable measurements of high standard, and among this lack of access to drinking water is an issue. Many of the watersheds near the regions that have an important position of economic value are contaminated because of different reasons. The Atoyac river is one of the rivers that suffers severe problems due to the contaminations caused by many contaminators, among them the industry, agriculture and local residences and municipals.
1.1 The water situation in Mexico
Mexico is a country with a land area of 1.964 million km2, and a population of 106.7 million
people, making it the eleventh most populated country in the world. The average water
availability per capita and year in 2011 was 4261 m3. As comparison, the average water availability
in 2014 in Sweden was 17363 m3 per year and capita. (Arreguín Cortés et al. 2011; AQUASTAT
2016)
Like many other countries in the world, Mexico stands in front of a wide range of issues when it comes to satisfying the country’s demand for water. Some of these issues derive from the climate change, which can lead to drought, change in rain pattern, floods, and other changes in the water cycle. These issues are hard to predict and solve. But there are other issues that are easier to manage in order to reach a more sustainable water situation, such as planning, water pollution, water administration, technology, etc. (Arreguín Cortés et al. 2011)
Of all the water used in Mexico, 76% is used in agriculture, 14% is domestic use, 5% is used in thermoelectric plants and 4% is used in the industry (Arreguín Cortés 2011). When it comes to the water being discharged into water bodies and sewage systems, only 24% is treated before being disposed (Schmidt et al. 2008). This is a major problem which has the effect that a lot of the Mexican rivers, lakes and other bodies of water are polluted, and in order to reach a more sustainable situation, different kinds of actions have to be taken.
1.2 Puebla
1.3 Río Atoyac
The Atoyac river (known as Río Atoyac in Mexico) is part of a subwatershed called Atoyac, that is part of the watershed known as Balsas. The Balsas watershed is the 4th largest watershed in Mexico, with a surface area of 118269 km2 extending over 8 Mexican states (Conagua 2012). The
Atoyac river flows through the states Tlaxcala and Puebla, and covers a surface area of 2429 km2.
The river begins high up in the mountain due to melting ice, at the border of Mexico and Puebla, and as it flows down, several smaller rivers contributes to the river, making it bigger and bigger (Saldaña Fabela & Gómez Balandra 2006). The river then runs through the state Tlaxcala and continues south to the state Puebla where it ends up in the dam Valsequillo in Puebla, before continuing to the Pacific Ocean (Sandoval Villasana et al. 2009).
The Atoyac river is, as stated before, part of a watershed called Balsas, and depending on the location, this river is known by different names. However, this thesis will be focusing on the part of the river that is located in the state of Puebla where it is known as the Atoyac river, and will therefore be named so throughout this paper.
1.4 Aim and objectives
The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the state of the Atoyac river, and to see how the state of the river affects the surrounding environment as well as the people living in connection to it, and also give suggestion for sustainable possible future solutions to the problems that might be connected to the river. The work has been divided into the following objectives:
● Evaluate the presence of contaminants that can have a negative impact on the river, such as heavy metals, BOD, toxic compounds etc.
● Examine what actors that are contributing to the contamination.
● Evaluate the impact on humans and the environment caused by the state of the river. ● Analyse the problems and discuss the possible solutions from a sustainable perspective.
1.5 Limitations
Evaluating the state of a river can be an immense and time consuming task, especially when the river being evaluated is very long. The Atoyac river is a 200 km long river, and therefore the contamination results may vary depending on where the investigation is done. Taking water samples from where the rivers begins could give different results from if the water samples are taken in the end of the river, since it could be different kinds of contaminators along the river that accumulates as the river flows towards the mouth of the river.
the level of contamination is higher or lower depending on if it is high or low season on the market.
This thesis will focus on the part of the river that is located in the state of Puebla. Since it was not possible to make any tests of the river’s water quality because of the authors’ limited time and resources, this thesis will be based on former articles and reports of the Atoyac river. These articles where water from the Atoyac river has been analysed are usually taken over long periods of times, and on different locations along the river. However, only articles with locations within the state of Puebla has been used in this thesis in order to see how the state is affected by the contaminations and what can be done in order to solve the problems that may arise from the contaminations.
2. Methodology
2.1 General methodology
This study has been conducted through literature studies of different articles and reports, mainly from universities and governmental agencies. To evaluate the contaminations in the river, a selection of articles have been used and compared in order to get an overview of the situation.
2.2 Sustainable development
There are a lot of definitions of sustainable development, as well as tools and theories to approach the subject of sustainable development methodically, and in this project the theory proposed by Peter Glavič and Rebeka Lukman (2006) will be used. They have, as many others, approached the subject of sustainable development by looking at it from a social, environmental and economic perspective. But what differs them from others is that they have also added a height dimension linking the three other perspectives together. This height dimension states in what system level the different tools and methods are located, with the top level being
sustainability policies, and the bottom one being principles. Approaching higher system levels
Figure 4. Pyramid showing the position of methods and tools within sustainability. The lowest system level is principles and is defined as the most fundamental concept in order to achieve basic actions, thereby it also consists of only one specific method or tool. It can be seen as the ground framework in order to enable more complex systems to build up.
Next system level is approaches (tactics) and is defined as a combination of a variety of principles in order to get a more complex system. The approaches are wider than the principles and include more methods in the same tool. Principles are also strongly connected to one dimension whereas in the approaches and higher system levels, the dimensions will start to connect with each other more and more until there are no tangible borders.
One more level up is sub-systems; strategies. It is classified as a set of approaches connected to each other that form one unit of a complex system. The strategies are a strong tool that will lead to integrated conservation of the environment and for a prosperous human welfare over time and now.
Following system level is sustainable systems, where each system contains independent and interrelated sub-systems. The difference between sub-systems and sustainable systems is that sub-systems works like a function in order to achieve sustainable development but sustainable systems aims to pave the progress of sustainable development.
The final level is sustainability policy that is also classified as a dimension and the ultimate goal of the concept of sustainable development. It is defined as “a set of ideas or a plan of what to do in
For further information of the definition of each specific method in the Glavič-pyramide see appendix 3.
2.3 Discussion of sources
The sources used in this paper are to be considered as reliable sources, but one have to keep in mind that Mexico is a country that is often accused for being corrupt, and therefore the numbers and figures collected from the Mexican government may not always be 100% correct. However, the authors of this thesis consider the governmental sources to give a correct picture of the situation since they correlate with sources from other actors.
The sources that the evaluation of pollutants in the river is based on mainly come from
universities, but they have not been conducted at the same period of time or by using the same method, and some of the studies were conducted a long time ago. Therefore, it is not possible to say what the situation looks like today, but it does give an overview of the situation over a longer period of time.
3. Result
This chapter will present the results of the study in terms of who is contaminating the river, what contaminants that can be found, what the laws and regulations say, and what impact the
contaminations in the river has on the environment, society and agriculture.
3.1 Polluters
3.1.1 Industries
Puebla has, as stated before, a large amount of different industrial activity which is often
concentrated in industrial parks located within the sub watershed Atoyac. The industry sector is the largest contaminator in Puebla of the three groups, and in 2006 there were 522 registered water discharges, and 168 of these came from the industry. The wastewater from the industry is sometimes treated in some way, before being discharged into rivers, lakes and other water bodies (Saldaña Fabela 2006). And even though there are national regulations when it comes to
pollution in wastewater, it doesn’t exist any control that makes sure that these regulations are being followed (Greenpeace 2013).
Figure 1. The main industries discharging wastewater into the Atoyac river. Source: Saldaña Fabela & Gómez Balandra (2006)
The biggest industry in Puebla is the textile industry (often blue denim manufacturing) which counts for around 24% of the wastewater being discharged in the Atoyac river (Montero et al. 2006; Saldaña Fabela & Gómez Balandra 2006). The water from these factories usually contains a high amount of chemicals and heavy metals, and even though the water sometimes is treated in some way before being released into the Atoyac river it still contains levels of contaminants that are higher than permitted by the regulations (Greenpeace 2013). Another problem with the waste water from the textile industry is that there are currently no regulations regarding colouring in the wastewater, which is one of the reasons that the water in Atoyac river doesn’t have a natural colour.
The industrial wastewater is the main source of chemical contamination in the Atoyac river, since it is often discharged directly into the river. However, there are wastewater treatment plants that sometimes treat industrial (and domestic) wastewater, but the problem is that they are often incapable of removing all the pollution that might be present in the wastewater. This means that even though wastewater from the industry is treated before being released into the river, it still contains contaminants. (Sánchez Zarza et al. 2012)
3.1.2 Domestic wastewater
Even though it exists wastewater treatment plants in Puebla, a big part of the population
discharge its domestic wastewater directly to the river, without any treatment. It is estimated that 70% of the water being discharged into the river comes from municipal wastewater (treated and untreated), and the other 30% comes from the industry. This domestic wastewater being
discharged to the river does not contains as much chemical contaminants as the industrial wastewater, but it does contain high amounts of organic material which affects the rivers BOD5
level. (Sánchez Zarza et al. 2012)
3.2 Contamination
The contaminants and the level of contamination in the Atoyac river varies depending on where, when and how the analyses have been done. As stated before, this study is based on several articles regarding the contamination in the Atoyac river (in the state of Puebla) in order to get an overlook of what contaminants are present in the river, and at what level. It will therefore not be used as a way of determining the exact amounts of contaminants present in the river, but more as a guideline to know what the main contaminants are, in order to find solutions to make the river more sustainable.
Intensification of industrialization in the area, where water use is an important asset, has led to a flourishing state of contaminants and a complex situation of chemical exposure. Among the chemical pollutants chloroform, methylene, chloride, indigo, aniline and toluene appear. Other contaminants that been found are soluble and settleable solids, lubricants and oils and other organic components. (Montero et al. 2006) Many of the pollutants exceed the regulation levels for Mexican standards of discharges into national waters (NOM-001-SEMARNAT-1996). In 2013 Greenpeace made an evaluation of Río Atoyac and Río Lerma which are two of Mexico's most polluted rivers. It was stated that 78% of the total industrial wastewater was contaminated to the degree that it was not accepted to NOM-001-SEMARNAT-1996 standards (Greenpeace 2013).
3.2.1 Physicochemical parameters
Total dissolved solids gave only a mentionable result in one of the stations with a concentration of 11 mg/l in Sandoval et al study 2009, but in Arellano-Aguillar et al. (2015) the study gave a result in all tested stations within a range of 266-9764 mg/l (Sandoval Villasana et al. 2009; Arellano-Aguillar et al. 2015).
In the Atoyac river, the BOD was recorded to be within the range 11-270 mg/l in the Sandoval et al study, and 96-366 mg/l in Saldaña’s and in an investigation by the city Puebla to be in between 10-240 mg/l (Sandoval Villasana et al. 2009; Saldaña Fabela 2002; Taller 13 2012). The government agency CONAGUA has also done BOD tests on the water in the Atoyac river, which can be seen in figure 2 below:
Figure 2. BOD concentration along the Atoyac river in Puebla. Red = Highly contaminated (BOD > 120 mg/l)
Orange = Contaminated (BOD between 30 and 120 mg/l) Yellow = Acceptable contamination (BOD between 6 and 30 mg/l)
Source: Conagua (2015)
NOM-001-ECOL-1996, while the maximum value that was obtained in the study was 26 mg/l (Sandoval Villasana et al. 2009).
3.2.2 Metals
According to Sandoval et al. (2015) study heavy metals such as arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), nickel (Ni) have all acceptable values within the MPL (maximum permitted limit) of NOM-001-ECOL-1996. Mercury (Hg) is just exceeding the permitted levels at one station with 0.002 mg/l, while at the others it is registered as 0.001mg/l. Some of the metals that were present such as magnesium (Mn) and iron (Fe) are not mentioned within any regulation, but were detected at some of the station with a concentration of Mn at 0.52 mg/l and Fe 0.52-0.53 mg/l (Sandoval Villasana et al. 2009). Arellano-Aguillar et al. (2015) study and Saldaña’s (2002) study also confirms that the concentrations of Zn and Pb are within the permitted level, besides in two points in the later study that showed a result on 23 mg/l for Zn and 27.01 mg/l for Pb (Arellano-Aguillar et al. 2015; Saldaña Fabela 2002). It is also
confirmed by the Arellano-Aguillar et al. (2015) study that Ni, chrome (Cr) and aluminium (Al) are within the permitted value for official mexican norm (Arellano-Aguillar et al. 2015).
According to the Greenpeace study concentrations of metals were very low in the Atoyac river and none of them exceeded the permitted level (Greenpeace 2013).
Graph 1. Concentration of metals in the water and sediments of Rio Atoyac. Source: Greenpeace (2013)
3.2.3 Microbiology
The water has also been tested for the microbiological organisms in some studies. In the Sandoval et al. (2009) study fecal coliforms were detected in all samples and even the lowest result at 2.20*103 NMP/100 ml was above standard measures of Mexico. The highest was
examined to 3.08*107 NMP/100 ml (Sandoval Villasana et al. 2009). The following figure from
Figure 3. Concentration of fecal and total coliforms in the Atoyac river. Source: Domínguez-Mariani et al. (2003)
All the studies showed on coliform levels that are to be considered high which makes it a health risk, and are therefore not suitable for swimming.
3.2.4 Toxicity
Totally 74% of 23 industrial discharges showed levels of toxicity within the range 2-1165 TU (TU = toxic unit), where 2 TU classifies as toxic and > 4 TU very toxic (Saldaña Fabela & Gómez Balandra 2006). Similar result on toxicity were obtained in Sandoval et al. (2009) study where it was tested for both the presence of organic and inorganic compounds. The presence of organic compounds showed a toxicity level within the range 2-28 TU at two test stations, while at other stations there was no sign of toxicity in the wastewater. For the inorganic compounds there was no sign of high toxicity levels at the absolute first stations but from there the toxicity level increased within 1-4 TU, to go down again to 3 TU in the last station (Sandoval Villasana et al. 2009).
Saldaña Fabela’s study (2006) shows that among the tested parameters the main contaminants that exceeded permitted levels according to NOM-001-SEMARNAT-1996 were BOD5, total
suspended solids, total nitrogen, settleable solids, lead, chromium, total phosphorus, cadmium and zinc (Saldaña Fabela & Gómez Balandra 2006). Other compounds such as fluoride,
methylene chloride, toluene and chloroform that pose a great health risk as well as environmental risk have within the years increased their concentrations, but are not mentioned in the the
Mexican regulation norm (Tribunal Latinoamericano del Agua 2006).
The toxic chemicals that been detected in the Arellano-Aguillar et al. (2015) study are
the food chain some of them may still reach the groundwater like for example 2,4-D. Others such as aniline may accumulate in sediments, but the greatest risks are the ones that are so called volatile compounds and stay for long periods in the air such as methylene chloride, toluene and chloroform (Montero 2014).
3.3 Laws and regulations
Laws and regulations can be an effective way to make sure that water being discharged from the industry, households, and other sectors of society is as clean as possible before being discharged in rivers such as the Atoyac river.
In Mexico there are three main standards that control the level of contamination and residues that are allowed in the water being discharged:
1) NOM-001-SEMARNAT-1996: specifies the maximum level of contamination in wastewater from municipalities and industry being discharged into waterbodies. 2) NOM-002-SEMARNAT-1996: specifies the maximum level of contamination in
wastewater being discharged to sewer systems.
3) NOM-003-SEMARNAT-1997: specifies the maximum level of contamination in treated water that will be reused.
In this case, the most interesting standard is the NOM-001-SEMARNAT-1996, since it regulates how much pollution the water being discharged into rivers and other waterbodies may contain. The standard regulates some of the most common contaminants such as metals, toxic heavy metals, BOD, settleable solids, floating matter etc. The following table shows all the maximum limits for the contaminants being regulated in rivers:
Parameter (mg/l if nothing else is
stated)
Use in agricultural
irrigation Urban and public use Protection of aquatic life
BOD 150 200 75 150 30 60 Total nitrogen 40 60 40 60 15 25 Total phosphor 20 30 20 30 5 10 Arsenic 0.2 0.4 0.1 0.2 0.1 0.2 Cadmium 0.2 0.4 0.1 0.2 0.1 0.2 Cyanides 1 3 1 2 1 2 Chrome 1 1.5 0.5 1 0.5 1 Mercury 0.01 0.02 0.005 0.01 0.005 0.01 Nickel 2 4 2 4 2 4 Lead 0.5 1 0.2 0.4 0.2 0.4 Zinc 10 20 10 20 10 20
Table 1. Maximum permitted level of contaminations in wastewater. Source: NOM-001-SEMARNAT-1996
D.A. = Daily Average, M.A. = Monthly Average, N.A. = Not Applicable
(1) = Instantly, (2) = Displays simple weighted average, (3) = Absent according to Method of Test defined in NMX-AA-006.
As can be seen from the figure above, this particular regulation of contaminants in wastewater only covers a small amount of contaminants, and there are currently no other regulations concerning other types of contaminants such as other heavy metals and different chemical compounds.
3.4 Impacts of bad water quality
The high degree of deterioration in the Atoyac river caused by the contaminators have a great impact on its surroundings and its ecosystems which in turn affects nature and society. The contaminations constitute health and acidification risks but also destroy cultural and
environmental values (UNEP 2010).
3.5.1. Impacts on the environment
industries, metallurgical industries and industrial collectors. Due to the same amount of
pollutants the colour could change within the seasons as an outcome of the water flow and the strength of the current, which made the suspended particles sweep away. The odour, mainly caused by hydrogen sulphide, indicates the severe industrial pollution and emerging biological activity (Sandoval Villasana et al. 2009). Other factors that affect the colour of the water are the high concentration of BOD and total suspended solids.
Another factor that may have a severe impact on the environment is the rapidly changing temperature of the water that caused by the discharges from the industries’ processes that generates hot water. Fast changes are hard to absorb for the ecosystem and warm water is more anaerobic impairing metabolic functions and reducing fitness (UNEP 2010). Other consequences caused by temperature changes is that the biological growth percentage, the state and
development of biota, chemical reactions and the contaminators power to dissolve themselves are disturbed (Sandoval Villasana et al. 2009).
The aquatic life is also disturbed due to the big amount of fat that the industries and local residences generate. The fat creates big, thick, floating stripes that don’t permit contact with the surface and blocking the sunlight. This has an impact on natural biological and chemical
processes and is interfering with the aquatic life (Sandoval Villasana et al. 2009). Disturbance of the aquatic life reduces the biodiversity of birds and other land living mammals (Taller 13 2006). The presence of total nutrients originates from domestic, agricultural and industrial waste. Its appearance as free ammonia NH3 and ammonium NH4 is known to pose a threat to aquatic
fauna. Presence of bacteria also suggests that a denitrification process is taking place where it reaches its state as the N2-molecule. Phosphor that today is not regulated by any regulation
measurements in Mexico is known like other nutrients to enhance the process of eutrophication, which is increasing plant growth making it very dense (Sandoval Villasana et al. 2009).
As seen in chapter 3.2.1., the concentration of BOD varies quite a lot depending on the study, but it is clear that in most of the studies the water is considered contaminated or highly contaminated because of BOD. The biological oxygen demand is one of the most important ways to measure the pollution in water, and it’s a measurement of how much oxygen that is consumed when bacterias in the water oxidize organic matter that is present in the river. If the water in, for example, a river contains a high degree of organic matter the bacterias will consume this and use the oxygen present in the river. If this consumption of oxygen in the river occurs in a faster rate than the oxygen in the air can dissolve in river again, the river will slowly start to die due to lack of oxygen. This affects the aquatic life, killing fishes and other animals that are vital for the river. (Hach et al. 1997)
3.5.2. Impacts on humans
The contamination effect on natural ecosystem pose a risk to human life and many of them generate health risks (UNEP 2010).
3.5.2.1 Health risks
In the area around the Atoyac river there has been quite few studies about how the river affects the health of the citizens living close to it. However, Dr. Regina Dorinda Montero Montoya did a study (2004) on how the Atoyac river and the Xochiac river affects the people living close to it. The study included 300 people who answered a poll with different questions regarding health, work, food and drinking habits etc. They also took blood samples to measure genotoxicity, which is a way to see how chemicals damage the genetic information which may lead to cancer. The study concluded that apart from work environment and the people's lifestyle, the volatile chemicals that comes from the river and industrial discharges are a potential risk when it comes to the health of the citizens. These volatile chemicals makes the surroundings smell bad, and some of the respondents suffer from nausea and headache, which could be caused by these chemicals. It was also concluded that the genotoxic damage is higher within the population living in the surrounding area of the river, compared to people living more than 4 km from the river, and in Mexico City.
Another threat for human health is the presence of different coliforms and especially fecal coliforms that is found throughout the river at high concentrations. The coliforms are not necessarily a health risk by themselves, but the presence of fecal coliforms indicates that human and/or animal feces is present in the water, and that is a risk because many diseases spread through fecal transmission (Vermont Department of Health 2016).
3.5.2.2 Effects on environmental and cultural values
The effects on the local residencies in direct contact with the water are rare, due to the fact that that the river is not a place of recreation anymore, nor do people get their water directly from the river (Montero 2014). Life quality has decreased significantly for the inhabitants living in close proximity to the river bank, since water contamination taken place and different ecosystem services that have been disturbed or totally disappeared, for example fishery (Tribunal
3.5.3 Effects on agriculture
The Mexican agriculture sector is a sector that many people get their daily bread from, and it’s vital for the Mexican society and economy. With 6.4 million hectares of agricultural land, Mexico has the seventh largest area designated to agriculture in the world. Agriculture is also the sector that has the highest demand of water, using 76% (63.35 billion m3/year) of all water being used
in Mexico. A large portion of the water being used (60 m3/s) in agriculture is untreated water,
which can cause environmental problems if the untreated water contains chemicals and substances that contaminates cropland and water bodies (Conagua 2014).
Just like in many states of Mexico, untreated water and water from the Atoyac river is being used in irrigation systems in some parts of Puebla as well. One of these irrigation districts is located close to the Valsequillo dam, southeast of the city Puebla. This dam gets most of its water from the Atoyac river, and this water combined with groundwater is then used in the irrigation district. The water from the dam is actually not suitable for irrigation since it contains dissolved heavy metals and other contaminants which originate from industrial and municipal discharges (Domínguez-Mariani et al. 2003). The use of this water also affects the groundwater in both a positive and negative way. The positive thing about using water from the river in agriculture is that it can recharge the groundwater (Hussain et al. 2002). This is what is happening in the Valsequillo area, but the problem is that the water from the river used in the irrigation systems contaminates the groundwater. For example, the groundwater in this area contains levels of coliforms that makes it unfit for drinking, and this is all because of the irrigation system using contaminated water from the river. In some parts of the Valsequillo area only groundwater is used for irrigation, and in these parts the groundwater is not as polluted as in the parts where a mixture of groundwater and water from the river is used (Domínguez-Mariani et al. 2003). The use of contaminated water on farmland also affects the soil which works as a filter as the water travels towards the groundwater, and therefore contaminants such as heavy metals accumulate in the soil.
3.5 Sustainability
The following section will relate to the sustainability approach by identifying the connections between the potential solutions from the previous chapter with the closest equivalent methods or tools from the Glavič-pyramid. In that way it will be easy to see the orientation of the needed methods, considering their strategic level and dimension. Further, the orientation of the methods indicates how profound the sustainability concept has been implemented and the measures that need to be taken in order to reach sustainability.
Sustainable development is a very broad concept and there are many different opinions of its exact meaning and in what way it should be measured. The concept suggested by Glavič and Lukman (2007) was mainly picked because it is easy to visualize, it gives a rather clear picture of how to measure the progress or object and what instruments that are needed to obtain
● Stricter regulations and laws
● Expand and improve the water treatment infrastructure ● Education to improve public awareness
● A control system by an unbiased part so that the regulations are followed ● Purification of wastewater
● Prevent pollution of the water
● Make people/the industry pay for what they pollute
Now, many of these solutions can fit into already identified tools and methods that the Glavič-report mentions, and from there we can see where on the Glavič-pyramid that the solutions would fit in. The corresponding methods/tools for the solutions are presented in the following table:
Potential solution Corresponding method/tool
Stricter regulations and laws Environmental Legislation (EL) Expand and improve water treatment Environmental Engineering (EE)
Education --- Purification Purification (P)
Prevent pollution of the water Cleaner Production (CP), Waste Minimization (WM) and Pollution Control (PC)
Social responsibility and management Environmental Management Strategy (EMS) Pay for what one pollutes Polluter Pays Principle (PP)
Table 2. Potential solution and their corresponding defined method/tool in the Glavič-pyramid. The colour codes: red=principle, orange=approach, yellow=sub-systems; strategies.
Figure 5. The Glavic-pyramid with the identified methods/tools marked in red. P = Purification, PP =Polluters Pays Principle, PC = Pollution Control, WM = Waste Minimization, CL = Cleaner Production, EL = Environmental Legislation, EMS = Environmental Management Strategy and EE = Environmental Engineering. Based on Glavič and Lukman (2007). From figure 5 it can be seen that most of the methods and tools are located on the lower
strategic levels of the pyramid, mainly in “approaches” and “principles”. This indicates that there is a need for fundamental methods and tools in order to reach the sustainability of the river, hence there is not yet a complex sustainable system. Most of the tools are also located in the environmental and societal dimension, which suggest that political and technical reforms will be especially needed.
It is important to take into consideration that the construction of the pyramid does not indicate a straight line of the progress, but it suggests that by following each step the implementation of sustainability will be bigger and wider.
4. Discussion
4.1 The problem
Water quality is a big issue not only in the Atoyac river case but for the whole Mexican nation. Already back in the nineties the problem was brought up to light for the Mexican public to see, but the problem maintained due to many reasons but the fact that the government used different ways to measure it, has given the case difficulties to establish the progress of water quality (Jiménez Cisneros 2007). As seen in result under contamination, the list of tested contaminations is very long, but in fact there have been too few studies made in this area and when it comes to studies of impacts they are more or less non-existent. Each study has made their own evaluations of what is most important and there is a vague correlation with respect to tested parameters, places, time and the ones testing it. However, all the studies do show that the river is
contaminated in different ways and have been so for a long time. It is therefore crucial to find solutions in order to make the river clean again.
After conducting the literature review it is clear that both domestic and industrial wastewater is being dumped straight into the river which leads to the pollution of the river. And upon that, many of the wastewater treatment plants that exist today are not working or are working poorly, and even with all of them working they don't have the capacity to meet today's volume demand of wastewater. This has led to high levels of fecal coliforms in the water which is an indicator that different kinds of diseases might flourish in the water and pose a threat to human health and other living species.
The pollution of the Atoyac river is not only a problem for the river and its aquatic life, but the findings suggests that the problems reach far beyond that. Some of the compounds found in the river are volatile which means that once they are in the air, they can spread in the wind. The problem from this mainly affects the area close to the river, and especially the health of the people living there. This could possibly also affect the health system since more people might need medical assistance. There is also a problem with farmers using the water in the river for irrigation, and then the contaminants will end up on land and possibly in the food. The findings also suggested that the river water used in agriculture can reach the groundwater which is both good and bad, since it recharges the groundwater, but it does so with contaminated water
polluter pays the highest price, but instead it could be innocent people living closer to the mouth of the river.
4.2 Potential Solutions
There are different potential ways to handle the problem and one solution does not exclude another one. What can be said is that even with different ways to attack the problem the main goal is still the same and that a symbiosis of many aspects has to be taken into account. As seen in the result chapter, the contaminations are high and it is understandable that many people have given up and just turned their back to the problem with the explanation that it is just out of hands to fix. The fact that they have not seen any progress in many years adds to the inconvenience and many of them have just cut their connection of caring about the river. From this it appears that a bigger public and governmental awareness is needed. The public need to be educated about the river’s state and how it affects them and their surroundings, and the
government need to start with actual improvement plans, and also make big investment in infrastructure and education to assure that the water in the river stays clean. Fortunately,
Mexico's National Water Plan between 2014-2018 verifies that there are plans for improvements and expansion of wastewater treatment infrastructure (Conagua 2014). A higher public awareness could also put more pressure on the government to take a stance against the polluting of the river.
Improvement of municipal and industrial wastewater treatment is one of the key elements for reducing the contaminations and minimizing the risks that correlate with them. By expanding the infrastructure and connecting the plants close to the polluters the government can make sure that the treated wastewater meets the requirements of the NOM-001-SEMARNAT-1996 standard. This will also require the already existing wastewater treatment plants to be upgraded to become more advanced, in order to be able to remove as much of the pollution as possible. Making sure that the requirements specified in NOM-001-SEMARNAT-1996 are reached is, as stated above, a crucial part in cleaning the river, but the problem is that today’s regulation was made in 1996 and 1997, and since then there hasn’t been that many changes. The problem with these regulations is that they only mention basic contaminants such as some heavy metals and solid matter, and therefore fail to address any maximum limits for more complex and toxic chemicals, such as the volatile chemicals. Another problem is that the maximum permitted levels of the different contaminations are rather high, at least if compared to U.S. standards. Therefore it might seem like the level of contamination in the Atoyac river is rather low according to the NOM-001-SEMARNAT-1996 standard, but would be considered much higher if compared to other nation’s water regulations.
factories in the wastewater, since this parameter is the one that affects the unnatural colour of the river most.
Another solution that the government could apply is to make it obligatory for any business that affects the environment to do an environmental impact assessment (EIA). That would give the government and municipalities an overview of how much the industry pollutes the river and it’s surrounding, and they would also be able to neglect any company to continue its production if their business affects the environment too much, which would force the company to revise their business plan and methods to make it more sustainable.
Today's contamination pose different kind of health risks and environmental threats which today may be overlooked, but if the stream of contamination is to be continued or increased it might become a big economical issues in the future due to the expanding demand of health care, lack of freshwater, environmental disasters, elimination of valuable ecosystem services and
forthcoming climate changes. More sick people will also affect the work force which in turn will affect the industries and the state economically.
The biggest polluters are the industries and they have an economic advantage by having very few regulations. They can choose the cheapest way to produce their goods and yet not pay for the consequences destroying the water that should belong to everyone. Most effectively it's believed that the industries will stop to pollute within the same amounts if they will be forced to pay for what they pollute, this is of course if the government set up prices that will make it more affordable to change the producing methods or installing inventions that reduce or completely removes the contaminants. From an economical point of view it is often much cheaper and easier to prevent pollution compared to treating the water from its contaminations. (Ecological Society of America n.d.) Rising costs might provoke opposition and maybe even lead to smaller companies going bankrupt, which is why it is important that everyone is well-informed of why these kind of measures need to be taken. Another way is to encourage companies to implement Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, into their business strategies as a first step to make the companies acknowledge their responsibility. It would give them an advantage of being a role model that is well recognised and respected and hopefully it will be desirable for other companies to follow their pattern. Furthermore there should also be a rewarding system to encourage companies to change, by either financial support or other privileged services.
4.3 Sustainability
Ska vi ha en discussion?
5. Conclusion
In this study it was concluded that the Atoyac river is polluted by different contaminations such as BOD, coliforms, metals, heavy metals (to some extent) and toxic chemicals, which have affected the environment, ecosystem services, people's health and agriculture in a negative way. There is a further understanding that violating social and environmental aspects will also have an impact on the economy in the long run. The high levels of contaminations are due to discharges from mainly industries and domestic water. Even if the quantities of the domestic water
discharges are bigger than the ones from the industries it was not possible to state in this paper which one of them posed a bigger threat. Further, it was investigated that if change and effective actions are to be achieved within a sustainable development approach suggested by Glavič and Lukman (2007), methods/tools such as Purification, Polluters Pays Principle, Pollution Control, Waste Minimization, Cleaner Production, Environmental Legislation, Environmental
Management Strategy and Environmental Engineering need to be assimilated. One of the important potential solutions that were identified as education, in order to increase public awareness had no equivalent method or tool to achieve it.
Over a longer period of time, the goal is to find a sustainable framework that on a regular basis regulates the possibility of contaminating the water in river Atoyac. Most of the identified methods and tools were situated on the two lowest system levels in the Glavič-pyramide within the societal and environmental dimensions which pressured the need for profound political and technical reforms. The technological instruments are of big importance in order to minimize the pollution especially in the early stage before pollution has even occurred, as it is more
economical. However, it is considered in this report that the real solution of the problem is of a social and political character, where social responsibility and environmental legislation are seen as fundamental tools to achieve progress. According to the authors the government has the biggest responsibility by providing strong restrictions and regulations as well as creating a strong and continuous control system that evaluates the current state of the river and the possibility to improve the situation.
After conducted study a strong conclusion is that there is still a huge need of further
investigation in the Atoyac river case, both when it comes to evaluate which compounds that really pollute the river and pose a real risk to both the environment as well as to the human beings and in what extent. Furthermore there is a wide understanding that the river is in
desperate need of purification, so that the biota around the river can go back to its natural state, leaving it as a recreation place far from dangerous health and environmental risks.
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Appendix
Appendix 1
The following chart is a chart over measured contaminants along four different stations in the Atoyac river, from Arellano-Aguilar et al. (2015).
Appendix 2
Appendix 3
Definitions of different methods to achieve sustainability, defined by Glavic P. and Lukman R. in
Review of sustainability terms and their definitions (2007). Environmental Legislation
Environmental legalisation is a set of legal principles, acts, regulations, directives, and laws, influencing both the environment and the inhabitants of each country or union. The aim of such a system is to improve the
environmental protection, and the quality of life.
Environmental Engineering
Environmental (green) engineering can be defined as the design, construction, operation, and use of
techniques which are feasible and economical while minimizing the generation of pollution at the source and the risk to human health and the environment, and, therefore, includes eco-design, LCA, green chemistry.
Environmental engineering focuses on achieving sustainability through the application of science and technology.
Purification
Purification is the removal of unwanted mechanical particles, organic compounds and other impurities. The process of removal could be mechanical, chemical or biological in order to improve the environment and quality of life.
Cleaner Production
Cleaner production is a systematically organized approach to production activities, which has positive effects on the environment. These activities encompass resource use minimization, improved eco-efficiency and source reduction, in order to improve the environmental protection and to reduce risks to living organisms. It can be applied to
processes used in any industrial sector and to products themselves (cleaner products).
Waste Minimization
Following EPA, waste minimization is defined as measures or techniques that reduce the amount of wastes
generated during industrial production processes. It is including source reduction or recycling activity
undertaken by the generator that results in either (1) a reduction in the total volume of waste, or (2) a reduction in the toxicity of the waste, or (3) both, so long as the reduction is consistent with the goal of minimizing present, and reducing future threats to human health and the
environment. It is about minimizing waste at sources, recycling, and purifying during the
production process, According to the definition, this term is environmentally oriented, and refers to industrial performance. But, the term indirectly refers to the human health and safety
dimensions. Due to toxicity and waste minimization, it is also linked to cost and risk reduction.
Pollution Control
Pollution control can be defined as "an approach that is designed to reduce the impacts of pollutants that
are produced, before they are released into the environment; this is accomplished by some type of treatment." The
pollution control approach focuses upon capturing and treating, rather than reducing the
Environmental Management Strategy
Environmental Management Strategy presents a sub-system created to manage the
environmental performance of organizations. EMS is a set of management tools and principles designed
to guide the allocation of resources, assignment of responsibilities and ongoing evaluation of practices, procedures and processes, and environmental concerns that industries, companies, or government agencies need to integrate into their daily business or management practices. EMS ensures that environmental issues are systematically
identified, controlled, and monitored. It provides a mechanism for responding to changing environmental conditions and requirements, reporting on environmental performance, and reinforcing continual improvement.
Polluter Pays Principle
The polluter pays principle was defined by the EEA as a principle that those causing pollution should
pay the costs it causes. Thus, the polluter pays for environmental damage in the form of a clean-up
or taxation but usually, in practice, the principle is overlooked.
