Sustainable relationships

Various measures can be taken to reduce the impact of soil management on watercourses but both soil and water pollution are still widespread in various parts of the world. We need to seriously curb soil erosion, thereby reducing amounts of sediments and nutrients reaching the waterways. A wide range of erosion control measures exist worldwide but they need to be taken up by many more countries. Practices need to be introduced into agricultural systems which limit or prevent the movement off the land of fertilisers, applied organic wastes such as slurry, and other types of waste that carry with them toxic compounds. There is much evidence that all of these have caused pollution to water sources. Irrigation is a prime example of how a technique, if misused and badly managed, can lead to catastrophic loss of land and harm to water courses. Much land worldwide has been rendered barren as a result and water coursed severely damaged. We need also to look carefully at the increasing urbanisation worldwide and how this situation can be managed to avoid increased sources of pollution to water courses and loss of good quality land. Although much attention is being given in some countries to land degradation, the fight against is still not being won and as a result water courses are being severely damaged.

Despite these worldscale soil problems, some sound steps are now being taken to manage the interaction between soils and water and other aspects of the environment. For many years, land use and soils were treated separately from water management by governments and those with a responsibility for the land and water. This is now changing as it is realised that land use, water management and humans that live in an area all significantly impact on each other. Water resources will only be protected if we are able to manage as an entity the various parts of the environment together. Some countries have introduced the concept of catchment management, also known as drainage basin management. The concept of catchment or drainage basin is that it encompasses the headwaters of a particular river or stream, the valley and floodplain through which it flows together with the surrounding land whose water feeds into the river or stream system. The land within the catchment can include urban areas, natural and semi-natural vegetation and various types of farmland. The principle behind this is to manage the catchment as an entity thus being able to regulate the influence of land use and soils and the growing impact of urbanisation on the water resources in the catchment. Water Framework Directives have been established in which the catchment is the management system used. Such Directives generally focus on the protection and enhancement of the water resource and seek to prevent human activities and land use methods that may affect this in a detrimental way.

National policies, introduced to preserve and improve soil quality, need to be established in all countries. Many of the problems leading to pollution of water courses relate to poor soil management. Unfortunately for various reasons many countries lack the drive to improve and manage in an integrated way land use and soils, water and urbanisation and other aspects of the environment. Integrated management of water, land use and other aspects of the environment can lead to improved quality and provision of water and to ecosystem conservation. All human societies need to be persuaded to follow these integrated approaches. It is particularly important that such advances are made in view of the forecasted large increases in world population, the increasing damage done to land and water bodies and the threats of climate change.