The+Economic+Impact

=Although this will definitely affect ecosystems, what kind of an economic impact will this have on us?=

Although a definitive figure for the total amount lost from water quality degradation is very difficult to come by, here we will provide and break down some figures relating to the complete economic impact. We can split the economic impact into five categories: human health, industry, crop yields, livestock, and fisheries.

**Human Health**
This is one of the more subtle types of economic losses. It arises from the consumption or use of toxic or contaminated water by humans. This may cause serious medical conditions to arise, and these conditions obviously need money to treat. In China alone, approximately 20 billion yuan, or around 3 billion dollars.

**Industry**
Water pollutions impact on industry is felt through the fact that there are both regulations and technological limits to the amount of pollution that can be in water that is used for industrial production. Regulations refers to limits set be government agencies such as the EPA in the USA that limit how polluted water can be and still be used in industrial production. Technological limits refers to limits on machines used for industrial production regarding the amount **concentrated** toxic atoms present in water that can be put into machinery. In China approximately 14 billion yuan are lost from this.

//A view of a contaminated industrial area, destroyed by pollution and waste.//

**Farm Yields**
Farm yields can definitely also be affected by toxic water. If water used to irrigate land is degraded, than crops produced from the area will not mature, and if they do mature, not safe for consumption for the general public, which means they are not sellable. In China approximately 1 billion yuan are lost from this.

**Livestock and Fisheries**
Finally, livestock ranches and fisheries may also be harmed by water pollution. This stems from the fact that organisms that use toxic water are in high danger of dying. Losses from this type of water pollution are generally the highest. In China about 36 billion yuan are lost from this.

**Recap**
Looking back at all of our data, in China alone in the year 1992 when this data was gathered, some 10 billion US dollars were lost because of such simple things as water pollution. And that was way back in 1992. Although data about the United States losses is difficult to obtain, the Phillipines, with a GDP 73 times smaller than that of the US's and a land area 33 times smaller than that of the US's loses approximately $1.3 billion. That, when magnified to the scale of the US and the world, is a very large amount. Consequently, it should be fairly obvious by now that economic losses from water pollution are widespread and giant.



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