Environmental Issues in East and Southern Asia

China and India

Overpopulation is the main source of a variety of environmental issues

Water Pollution

• Rivers are polluted by a point source like industrial waste or raw sewage

• The pollution can also come from non-point sources like agriculture runoff or runoff from cities

The Ganges River is one of India’s most important rivers as well as it’s

most polluted

Are Biogas the solution?

• Only 250 of 4,000 large cities have sanitation in India

• 80% of all disease in India can be traced to water infected by human waste

• One city, Banares, dumps over 200 million gallons of raw sewage a DAY in the Ganges

Yangtze River

• 42% of pollution in the Yangtze is raw sewage…25 billion tons last year (265 billion gallons)

• The majority of the rest is agricultural and industrial runoff

The air over there

• China produces over 75% of their electricity from coal

• China’s fast economic development increases demand for electricity which results in increased pollution

A GLOBAL Impact

Natural Disasters too…

• The Huang He (Yellow River) is also called China’s Sorrow because of the many deaths that have resulted from its seasonal floods

• Spring rains and snow melt causes the annual flood