Economic Impacts
Many people immediately think of health and climate issues when describing the effects of water pollution. While this is true, water pollution has a huge effect on the economy as well. Water pollution is costing the countries of South Asia billions of dollars every year, with it only looking to increase. India alone is spending over $80 billion every year on pollution expenses. These expenses include purification centers, monitoring facilities, and the actual clean up teams that remove the pollution. This is wasting a huge amount of the governments budget when it could be used for many other problems. Spending some money to prevent and avoid the water pollution now is proven to end up being cheaper than cleaning it up later.
While the countries of South Asia are losing huge amounts of money, so are the industries in these countries. Because of pollution, the fishing industry has had a major decline. The fish are dying off from the toxic waters which is creating more competition for less fish. This hurts the food and trade economy and raises prices for the people. In fact, from 2010 to 2011 India made about $2.8 billion just from the fishing industry (reset.org). Their economy is dependent on the fishing industry, so when pollution destroys that industry, their economy will be in chaos. The irony of this situation is that all of these countries are using more large scale, mechanized ways of fishing to increase their catch, but these machines put pollution back into the water causing more destruction. It is an endless cycle that will be a huge debt one day.
While the countries of South Asia are losing huge amounts of money, so are the industries in these countries. Because of pollution, the fishing industry has had a major decline. The fish are dying off from the toxic waters which is creating more competition for less fish. This hurts the food and trade economy and raises prices for the people. In fact, from 2010 to 2011 India made about $2.8 billion just from the fishing industry (reset.org). Their economy is dependent on the fishing industry, so when pollution destroys that industry, their economy will be in chaos. The irony of this situation is that all of these countries are using more large scale, mechanized ways of fishing to increase their catch, but these machines put pollution back into the water causing more destruction. It is an endless cycle that will be a huge debt one day.