ABSTRACT
There is now widespread concern about both the availability and the quality of water. The Water Framework Directive 00/60 describes water as ‘a heritage which must be protected, defended and treated as such’ (see p 237, below). A large volume of legislation exists aimed at safeguarding scarce water supplies and requiring minimum water quality standards. Over the centuries the world’s rivers and seas have been used not only as a source of food, but also as a cheap and convenient repository for human and industrial waste. More recently they have become a leisure facility for bathing and water sports. Today, perhaps belatedly, they have come to be recognised as the basis of unique ecosystems worthy of protection in their own right. If the water and marine environment is to continue to perform these various roles in a sustainable manner then unrestrained disposal of materials into the aqueous environment poses an unacceptable threat.
