Māris kļaviņŠ, azamat azizov, JĀnis zaļoksnis environment, pollution, development: the case of uzbekistan

Figure 7.35. 
Fibres of 
asbestos

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158 
ENVIRONMENT, POLLUTION, DEVELOPMENT:  THE CASE OF UZBEKISTAN
Indoor and outdoor air pollution. Accessible: www.lbl.gov/Education/ELSI/
pollution-main.html.
Air pollution. Accessible: www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/airpollution.html.
Air quality in EU. Accessible: ec.europa.eu/environment/air/index_en.htm.
Air pollution. Accessible: www.eea.europa.eu/themes/air.
Air quality in Europe. Accessible: www.airqualitynow.eu/.
Air pollutants. Accessible: www.epa.gov/ebtpages/airairpollutants.html.

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8. WATER POLLUTION
 159
8. WATER POLLUTION
Natural composition and properties of water vary due to 
different  geographical,  geological,  biological  and  other  reasons. 
These  are  natural  changes  and  their  significance  may  be  quite 
substantial,  for  example,  during  the  floods  the  river  water 
composition  may  differ  from  the  summer  low-water  period  water 
quality indicators ten or even more times. Human activity can 
influence  water  quality  significantly  more  than  the  natural 
causes. For example, the human impact on the natural waters may 
disrupt their hydrological regime (river flow rates, affect the lake 
level), or to change the composition of the waters by pollution. 
Anthropogenic impacts disrupt the water and substance cycles and 
affect aquatic ecosystems. Contamination of water with pathogenic 
(disease-causing) microorganisms, heavy metals, pesticides, and 
water eutrophication are considered to be of crucial importance 
(Figure 8.1). 
Pollution denotes a change of a certain water characteristic or a 
set of characteristics, which makes it difficult or even precludes the 
use of water for a specific purpose. From the nature conservation 
point of view this is not relevant, because the economic usefulness 
is not an indicator of natural wealth and diversity or of the environ-
ment quality. However, environ ment protection often has to be 
balanced with economic priorities, and therefore the inadequacy of 
water quality for certain uses is called water pollution. 
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