El Salvador environmental problems

One of the most serious environmental problems faced by El Salvador is lead pollution and petrochemical spills. For decades, the industry has released Toxic substances in air and water without due controlwhich has led to an accumulation of lead in the soil and in the supply of drinking water. Exposure to high levels of lead has devastating effects on people’s health, especially in children, causing neurological damage and developmental disorders.

Petrochemical substances spills have also had a devastating impact on local ecosystems, damaging aquatic life, polluting soils and affecting biodiversity. These unfortunate events have generated awareness about the need to strengthen the regulation and application of environmental norms to prevent future disasters.

We recommend reading this article about oil pollution: causes, consequences and how to avoid it.

Climate change is another urgent environmental problem that affects El Salvador. He Increased global temperatures It has caused extreme climatic phenomena, such as more intense and prolonged hurricanes. These adverse climatic events have a significant impact on the food security, infrastructure and economy of the country.

Rural communities are particularly vulnerable, since they depend largely on agriculture and are exposed to soil erosion and loss of crops due to changing climatic conditions. In addition, the Increase in sea level Threat to coastal communities, exacerbating the risk of flooding and eroding the beaches and mangroves that provide natural protection against storms.

Water scarcity is a serious problem that affects many regions of El Salvador. The combination of deforestation, pollution and effects of climate change has led to the decrease in water resources. Surficial and underground water sources are being overexploited and contaminated by agricultural practices and industrial waste not treated.

This lack of water affects people’s daily life, food production and public health. The poorest and most marginalized communities are the most affected, since they do not have access to alternative sources of safe water.

Deforestation is another critical environmental challenge in El Salvador. The Expansion of agriculture, illegal felling and uncontrolled urbanization They have drastically reduced the country’s forest coverage. Deforestation has devastating effects on biodiversity, floors, water cycle and regional climate.

Forest loss also contributes to land degradation and increases the vulnerability of the country to Earth and flood landslides. In addition, deforestation deprives local communities of important natural resources and destabilizes fragile ecosystems.

This uncontrolled deforestation is due to the uncontrolled logging of forest trees and fires for crops and other deforestation by individuals who use ancestral methods to raise cattle and cut sugar cane. Given the breach of government norms and violations of national environmental laws, they have resulted in a disproportionate amount of erosion, soil sedimentation and desertification of 75% of the country, and the loss of rain cycles that provide more than 12 billion cubic meters of water per year.

In the last 30 years The 360 ​​rivers flow of the country has been reduced from 30% to 70%and from 70% to 100% the flow of Cuscatlán, Chalatenango and the north of Cabañas has been reduced, of which there are already desert areas above. The only tributary whose flow increased from 25% to 35% was the Arduate river.

The urban population has grown out of control due to the absence of national land administration laws and engineering guidance on appropriate construction techniques provided by the Government.

Urban funnel cities have been formed that communicate with other cities through road networks, vehicle transport depends on the main road arteries, when they are congested, they can create a Severe traffic congestionresulting in waste of time for workers and higher levels of Smog in the city. The unhealthy conditions of the environment and the population are high, which can quickly translate into respiratory diseases.

The above in no way proves that the government is interested in building more paths, since the implementation of such a misguided strategy (supposedly to resolve the congestion of traffic and development) will only lead to an increase in the number of vehicles in circulation. It will end bottled with more garbage like other cities in the world, while public congestion and transport problems are not effectively addressed.

In this way, the physical space of the soil and its use for the support of the environmentthey move more and more towards a higher level of destruction and seriously deteriorate the environmental and life conditions of the vast population that already suffers from this situation. Especially for urban populations that already face serious overcrowding and unhealthiness problems which are manifested in viral and bacterial epidemics recurring and uncontrollable.

At the national level, the average population density has reached 315 people per square kilometerand in some cities like Soyapango, an average population density of around 16,835 people per square kilometer have been reached.

Now that you know the environmental problems of El Salvador, you may also be interested in this article on animals in danger of extinction in El Salvador.

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