title: Human waste: An underestimated source of nutrient pollution in coastal seas of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.
abstract: Many people practice open defecation in south Asia. As a result, lot of human waste containing nutrients such as nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) enter rivers. Rivers transport these nutrients to coastal waters, resulting in marine pollution. This source of nutrient pollution is, however, ignored in many nutrient models. We quantify nutrient export by large rivers to coastal seas of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, and the associated eutrophication potential in 2000 and 2050. Our new estimates for N and P inputs from human waste are one to two orders of magnitude higher than earlier model calculations. This leads to higher river export of nutrients to coastal seas, increasing the risk of coastal eutrophication potential (ICEP). The newly calculated future ICEP, for instance, Godavori river is 3 times higher than according to earlier studies. Our modeling approach is simple and transparent and can easily be applied to other data-poor basins.
authors.affiliation: Environmental Systems Analysis Group, Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands; Department of Environmental Science, Patuakhali Science and Technology University, Bangladesh. Electronic address: namines@pstu.ac.bd.
authors.forename: Md Nurul
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Amin
authors.affiliation: Environmental Systems Analysis Group, Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands; Water Systems and Global Change Group, Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Carolien
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kroeze
authors.affiliation: Environmental Systems Analysis Group, Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Maryna
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Strokal
mesh_terms: D001459:Bangladesh; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D004787:Environmental Pollution; D005068:Eutrophication; D005243:Feces; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000032:analysis; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D010154:Pakistan; D010758:Phosphorus / Q000032:analysis; D045483:Rivers; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D010758:Phosphorus; D009584:Nitrogen
keywords: Coastal water pollution; Human waste; Nutrient models, coastal eutrophication; Open defecation