Pollution of the beaches: causes and consequences

Among the main causes of beaches pollutionwe can find:

Polluting spills on the beaches

For example, we can cite the spills in wet times from the pipes due to excessive rainfall, which include runoff waters, discharges due to combined sewer overflows and sanitary wastewater overflows.

The rainwater or from the thaw flows through the land collecting materials on their way, such as chemicals, sediments and pollutants, such as gasoline, motor oil, antifreeze, fertilizers, pesticides, metals, in addition to bacteria, and ends in drains, rivers, streams and, finally, on the beaches and the ocean.

On the other hand, the overflows of combined sewers, which are those that collect rainwater and domestic and industrial waste nearby water bodies.

In turn, sanitary water overflows (a mixture of raw, industrial and rainwater sewage can be produced when unintentional discharges from them from sewerage systems in situations of obstructions or system failures (for example, for overloads).

Here you will find more information about what the wastewater is and how they are classified

Waste and garbage on the beaches

Garbage accumulation and waste, including plastic waste, microplastics, bottles, cans, cigarette butts, caps and tapas. These waste can reach the beaches by more two ways: either by not being correctly recycled and being transported by rainwater to sewers, rivers and streams and ending in the ocean, or for having been deposited directly on the beaches themselves by their visitors.

In this other ecology article, you can learn more about garbage pollution, its causes and consequences.

Pumps to the sea from the ships

Accidental or intentional discharges from recreational and commercial vessels begin in the ocean or the sea, but they end up on the beaches, being affected by different ecosystems. Among the spills that generate vessels, garbage are included from food, fishing equipment (nets, strings, etc.), ballast water, showers of showers and scrubber or anti-fouling paintings, among others.

Nitrogen and other nutrients in excess

There are nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, which are found naturally in aquatic ecosystems and that serve the growth of aquatic algae and plants and these, in turn, such as food and habitat for the fauna of the system. The excess of these nutrients happens in many coasts and may be due to anthropic activities and cause environmental problems and negative effects on people’s health. One of the most important sources of this excess nutrients in the beaches is agriculture, due to the excessive use of fertilizers, crop fertilizers and soil erosion.

The Consequences of beaches pollution They are very varied in nature and solution, as shown below.

• Public health involvement: Wastewater discharges in the marine system causes beaches contamination with the introduction of notable amounts of fecal bacteria, such as gender Enterococcus or the popular Escherichia coliand generate spotlights of disease transmission to the population when entering direct contact with contaminated waters or by the intake of infected organisms (such as fish or seafood). Within the symptomatological picture that affected people can present are cramps, gastroenteritis processes, fevers, etc.
• Loss of biodiversity: The presence of Beaches on beaches It is the increased risk that the animals that inhabit, such as sea birds, come into contact with these materials and ingest them. It is estimated that 90% of sea birds consume waste discarded by humans, which is a clear sample of the global prevalence of anthropogenic pollution in this type of systems and in the marine environment in general. In this other article you will find detailed information on the loss of biodiversity, its causes and consequences.
• Economic damages: The beaches function as points of tourist attraction and their pollution can lead to a loss of their landscape value, which translates into a lower influx of visits and the consequent economic loss of the area.

To prevent or reverse situations of beach pollution, you can proceed to the implementation of various measures both at the legislative level and at the individual level of those who visit the coastal areas. To have an idea about How to prevent contamination of beacheswe can highlight the following ideas:

• Investment in environmental education programs for public awareness about environmental protection and maintenance. At the individual level, the protection of these spaces must be enacted by taking responsibility for the garbage generated in these spaces.
• Implementation of monitoring programs of contamination levels on beaches that are worth the use of sentinel organisms (living beings used to analyze the level of contamination existing in an environment from the presence of contaminants inside or based on their mere presence or absence in said medium), which provide information on the quality of water and the sand of the beaches.
• Improvement of the wastewater treatment service at the municipal level. In certain places, especially in summer times – in which the influx of tourists is usually higher than during the rest of the year -, the amount of wastewater received by the collection systems and the water treatment plants exceeds their capacity and, therefore, the spill of the waters without treating the medium is discharged. To prevent these types of situations from being repeated every year, it would be advisable to establish a greater number of water treatment plants to soften the load of the existing ones, which could be financed, in part, by the ecotasas to the visitors of the localities with beach. Here you can know the types of wastewater treatment that are currently.
• Application of regulations at the regional or state level for the beaches protection.
• Increase in vessel control to verify that they do not commit infractions when managing the waste generated in them.

Within the set of management and restoration measures of contaminated beachesstand out:

• Campaigns of Playing garbage collectioneither organized by groups of volunteers or by the administrative bodies of the affected localities.
• Application of one Specific regulations for beaches that include relevant procedures to alert and close beaches in cases of specific pollution.
• Installation of greater number of garbage containers on the beaches Well, in times of large influx of visitors, they are usually full and overwhelmed, which, together with a poor awareness of the population, tends to promote the abandonment of waste on the beaches.
• Cleaning and restoration of pollution points on beaches to avoid the risk of human health affectation.

Finally, below you can see a gallery of PHOTOS OF POLLUTION ON THE BEACHESwhich you can use, together with this information, to help raise awareness.

If you want to read more articles similar to Pollution of the beaches: causes and consequenceswe recommend that you enter our pollution category.