Olivia Levy

10/10/23

Synthesis

Water pollution can be a big issue in any area, especially when those who are to blame
are not coming forward. Often there's a problem effectively holding those individuals
accountable for the pollution they have caused. (Behera et al, 2002, Ruppen et al, 2022).Simply
getting the polluters to listen and care about the damage they have caused can be difficult. Towns
and communities that are polluted by industries are left on their own to clean up the mess.
Together each study I reviewed strives to solve the problem of holding people and
companies accountable for the pollution they have caused. In a few of the articles, there are legal
ways to hold the guilty polluters accountable. Strategies can include creating a legal team that
has dealt with water pollution disputes in the past as well or including stakeholders to help with
providing guidance and support. (Campell et al, 2021, Biermann et al, 2011). Stakeholders help
by taking an interest in the effort of the outcomes of companies.
These bodies of literature take into the point that polluters haven’t been held responsible
for far too long. In one of the articles, the authors conducted studies in a village in Zimbabwe
that was polluted and examined how this community tried to hold the polluting company
responsible. Despite collecting and showing substantial evidence they were only able to get a
hole that can locate water from stakeholders.
In the articles where they studied polluted communities, people were getting sick with
waterborne diseases due to their main water source being heavily polluted due to industrial
practices. (Ruppen et al, 2022). Citizens' lives were being changed as they couldn’t get on with
their daily routines. People’s lives and well-being were at risk due to these careless companies.
At the end of the studies, the polluted communities were left with some progress, but there was
no full circle compensation and accountability. In a couple of the articles, there were no ultimate
conclusions.
The Polluters Pay Principle would be a strategy trying to hold polluters more chargeable
for pollution. The strategy seemed feasible, but not fully looked at enough. With one of the
underdeveloped ideas in mind, the combination of the Ability to Pay Principle and the Polluters
Pay Principle has great potential. (Malmquist et al, 2023, Zimmer et al, 2014). This combination
will be able to enforce payment for the kind of pollution, how much is polluted, and the cost of
how to treat the pollution. These articles in particular, including others, would end with the
conclusion that there needs to be more research conducted.
This body of literature gives many ideas on how to combat the struggle of efficiently
holding polluters accountable. Although articles were left needing more research, there were still
potential ideas that need to be looked into further. With further experimentation and testing these
strategies could be put into place. With establishing more of serving justice to those who are
affected by pollution by organizations.