According to the World Health Organisation, 3.4 million persons, mostly children, die annually from preventable water-related diseases.
The Pacific Institute reported that in developing countries, an estimated 90 percent of sewage and 70 percent of industrial waste is discharged into waterways without any treatment.
The Oceans Project and Pacific Garbage Screening tell that about 700 tons of plastic is cast into seas and oceans daily. And news reports tell of dead marine animals, including whales, choked or strangled by plastics.
While much is being done to improve the quality of the world’s waters, there are fears that the scope of all of the water-polltion problems isn’t realized and that industries’ concerns (profits) overrride public-health and wildlife-conservation concerns.
On this date in 1965, more than 3,000 civil rights demonstrators led by the Reverend Martin King began to march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
