UNEP: The ocean is being turned into a 'landfill'.

In a public report at La Hey (Netherlands) on October 4, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) warned of rapid urbanization in coastal areas plus dumping of waste and garbage. to the sea and the ocean is a source of serious pollution to the sea, which is at risk of worsening due to population pressure.

Waste on the coast (Photo: TTO)

Titled " Status of Marine Environment ", the UNEP report noted a lot of progress in meeting 3 of the 9 "key criteria", including a 90% reduction in carbon dioxide pollution from the middle. 80s of the 20th century thanks to significant improvements in the field of shipping, limiting and banning the use of long-term organic pollutants (such as pesticides and some chemicals) as prescribed in Stockholm Convention in 2001 and reducing radioactive substances.

However, the report highlights four issues that tend to worsen, especially the dumping of waste water and garbage into the sea, and too much organic food in water sources. UNEP experts warn that these organic substances (mainly nitrogen and phosphorus) arising from agricultural and animal waste, turning soil in coastal areas become fertile create an ideal environment for toxic algae proliferate, develop and thus appear more and more " dead zones and lack of oxygen ", causing imbalance in the coastal ecosystem.

UNEP experts predict about 80% of marine pollution comes from the mainland and this situation will continue to increase from now to 2050; At the same time, he stressed that this issue will especially affect developing areas, thus needing great financial support to overcome this situation.

The report also said that currently, nearly 40% of the world's population lives in narrow coastal areas (accounting for only 6.7% of the Earth's surface area) and depends on natural resources. Population density in the coastal area may increase from 77 people per square kilometer in 1990, to 115 people per square kilometer in 2025.

The report, prepared by UNEP's Global Action Program (GPA, based in La Hey), will be forwarded to more than 100 reference countries, in preparation for the second GPA meeting with the theme " Global action program to protect the marine environment " , scheduled to be held in Beijing (China) from October 16-20, 2006.