15 COVID-19 Pandemic: An Unprecedented Blessing for Nature
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a lagoon of Venice [75], in terms of decreased suspended particulate matter. Restricted
industrial activities under quarantine measures have also reduced the consumption
of water by industries; thereby, reducing the industrial water demand stress.
Quarantine lockdown had an overall positive impact on water quality because
several parameter values were either close or within the prescribed standards of
pollution control agencies. However, there is a need for higher number of studies
on the parameters of water for analysing and recording the impact of a period that
has such minimal human and industrial activities. Quality water, sanitation facility
and hygiene are issues which are mutually related to one another because accessibility to clean water source without improvement in sanitation and hygiene facility
or vice versa is not possible. According to World Bank Group, 600 million people
lack access to an improved water source and more than 1 billion people lack access
either to improved sanitation or drink unsafe water from an ‘improved’ source. Unfit
drinking water source and improper sanitation facility not only exposes a person
to various health hazards but also acts as a primary cause for widespread of many
communicable diseases. Reported development of ear infections, sore throats, eye
irritations, respiratory disease, or gastrointestinal disease in people after swimming
in coastal beaches in the United States is linked to transmission of vast colonies of
viruses from sewage treatment plants to some U.S. coastal waters [76]. Though transmission of COVID-19 virus in humans is mainly airborne; however, transmission of
SARS-CoV-1 virus via faecal-oral transmission and recent reports of SARS-CoV-2
viral shedding from the digestive tract (via stool) raised concern regarding possible
transmission of COVID-19 virus through faecal-oral routes [77, 78]. Recent scientific studies [77–79] succinctly proved the persistence of SARS-CoV-2 virus loads
in untreated wastewater and raw sewage for longer periods and its movement from
untreated wastewater to river water systems. The loadings of COVID-19 virus from
wastewater plants/sewer systems to ground or surface water sources further threatens
human life. Thus, the COVID-19 pandemic further highlights the need for better
sewer systems, proper functioning of wastewater treatment plants and access to safe
and clean water.
15.2.3 Impact on Biodiversity
Biodiversity simply means variety of living organisms. It encompasses all life forms,
present in the four spheres of the Earth, ranging from a microscopic bacterium to
the massive Amazon forests or a big blue whale. Earth is endowed with a variety of
ecosystem such as lakes, rivers, oceans, mountain, desert, forest, grasslands, wetlands
which acts as home for various life forms. Earth’s every organism plays a crucial and
specific role in the food chain (some are known to us while some functions are yet
to be unravelled). Thus, when human beings destroy the habitat or kill other living
organism relentlessly, it leads to chain of catastrophic imbalance in the ecology.
363
a lagoon of Venice [75], in terms of decreased suspended particulate matter. Restricted
industrial activities under quarantine measures have also reduced the consumption
of water by industries; thereby, reducing the industrial water demand stress.
Quarantine lockdown had an overall positive impact on water quality because
several parameter values were either close or within the prescribed standards of
pollution control agencies. However, there is a need for higher number of studies
on the parameters of water for analysing and recording the impact of a period that
has such minimal human and industrial activities. Quality water, sanitation facility
and hygiene are issues which are mutually related to one another because accessibility to clean water source without improvement in sanitation and hygiene facility
or vice versa is not possible. According to World Bank Group, 600 million people
lack access to an improved water source and more than 1 billion people lack access
either to improved sanitation or drink unsafe water from an ‘improved’ source. Unfit
drinking water source and improper sanitation facility not only exposes a person
to various health hazards but also acts as a primary cause for widespread of many
communicable diseases. Reported development of ear infections, sore throats, eye
irritations, respiratory disease, or gastrointestinal disease in people after swimming
in coastal beaches in the United States is linked to transmission of vast colonies of
viruses from sewage treatment plants to some U.S. coastal waters [76]. Though transmission of COVID-19 virus in humans is mainly airborne; however, transmission of
SARS-CoV-1 virus via faecal-oral transmission and recent reports of SARS-CoV-2
viral shedding from the digestive tract (via stool) raised concern regarding possible
transmission of COVID-19 virus through faecal-oral routes [77, 78]. Recent scientific studies [77–79] succinctly proved the persistence of SARS-CoV-2 virus loads
in untreated wastewater and raw sewage for longer periods and its movement from
untreated wastewater to river water systems. The loadings of COVID-19 virus from
wastewater plants/sewer systems to ground or surface water sources further threatens
human life. Thus, the COVID-19 pandemic further highlights the need for better
sewer systems, proper functioning of wastewater treatment plants and access to safe
and clean water.
15.2.3 Impact on Biodiversity
Biodiversity simply means variety of living organisms. It encompasses all life forms,
present in the four spheres of the Earth, ranging from a microscopic bacterium to
the massive Amazon forests or a big blue whale. Earth is endowed with a variety of
ecosystem such as lakes, rivers, oceans, mountain, desert, forest, grasslands, wetlands
which acts as home for various life forms. Earth’s every organism plays a crucial and
specific role in the food chain (some are known to us while some functions are yet
to be unravelled). Thus, when human beings destroy the habitat or kill other living
organism relentlessly, it leads to chain of catastrophic imbalance in the ecology.