Water Pollution Puts Over 300 Million at Risk(翻译)

More than 300 million people in Africa, Asia and Latin America are at risk of life-threatening diseases such as cholera and typhoid.
非洲、亚洲和拉丁美洲有超过3亿人处于患上霍乱和伤寒等致命疾病的危险之中。

The reason: Pollution of water in rivers and lakes.
原因是：河流和湖泊里的水污染问题。

These are findings in a report from the United Nations Environment Program, also known as UNEP.
这些是联合国环境规划署（UNEP）的一份报告中发现的内容。

Viruses, bacteria and other microscopic organismsincreased pollution in more than half of rivers across the three areas between 1990 and 2010, the report said.UNEP officials said long-lasting toxic pollutants like fertilizer or petrol increased during that period.Levels of salt rose in nearly one-third of the waterways.
报告称，在1990年-2010年期间，在这三个地区大半数的河流中病毒、细菌和其他微生物的存在加剧了水污染。UNEP官员称，在这段时间里，像化肥和汽油这样的长期有毒污染物增加了。近三分之一水路中的盐分水平也提高了。

The report listed population growth and expanding agriculture as two of the main reasons for the increase of surface water pollution.Another reason was an increased amount of untreated water containing waste products.In all, UNEP said, 323 million people were at risk of infection.
报告认为人口增长和农业扩张是地表水污染加剧的两个主要原因。还有一个原因是未经处理的含有污染物的水量增加了。UNEP表示，总体上有3.23亿人处于感染的危险之中。

Dietrich Borchardt, the lead writer of the report, spoke to the Thomas Reuters Foundation."The water quality problem at a global scale and the number of people affected by bad water qualityare much more severe than we expected,” he said.
这份报告的第一作者迪特里希·博查特接受了汤森路透基金会的采访。“全球范围的水质问题以及受不良水质影响的人数远比我们预料的要严重得多。”他说。

But a large number of the rivers in the affected areas are still in good condition and need to be protected, Borchardt noted.
博查特指出，在受影响区域中还是有很多河流的状况尚好，需要严加保护。

Disease-causing pollution was a problem in almost 25 percent of rivers in Latin America, the UNEP report said.Between 10 and 25 percent of the rivers in Africa were affected, as were up to 50 percent in Asia.Untreated sewage was the main cause of this, it said.
联合国环境规划署的报告中称，致病的污染是拉丁美洲近25%河流中出现的问题。非洲地区10%-25%的河流都受到了同样的影响，而这个数字在亚洲更是高达50%。报告称未经处理的污水是这个问题的主要原因。

The report added that nearly 3.4 million people die each year from diseases or conditions like cholera, typhoid, polio and diarrhea.These are related to water quality.
报告补充说，每年有近340万人死于霍乱、伤寒、小儿麻痹症和腹泻等疾病。这些都和水质有关。

UN officials believe as many as 164 million people in Africa are at risk of infection from the diseases.They said that 134 million people in Asia and 25 million in Latin America are also at risk.
联合国官员认为，非洲有1.64亿人处于感染这些疾病的风险之中。亚洲有1.34亿人、拉丁美洲有2500万人处于同样的风险之中。

The report said building more sewage systems was not enough to solve the problems of infection and deaths.It said the solution was for countries to treat their wastewater.
报告认为，仅仅建造更多的排污系统，对解决感染和死亡问题来说是不够的。应该从国家层面上处理污水。

Organic pollution, such as sewage, can cause water to lose all oxygen.One of every seven kilometers of river in Latin America, Asia and Africa has no oxygen.This threatens freshwater fisheries, the report said.
有机物污染，比如污水，会导致水中完全没有氧气。在拉丁美洲、亚洲和非洲，每7公里河流就有一公里是没有氧气的。报告称这威胁着淡水鱼类的生存。

Mines, homes and irrigation systems often release salty water in rivers and lakes, creating high salt levels there.Moderate to high salt levels affect one in three rivers across the three continents, the report said.
开矿、家庭污水和灌溉系统会向河流和湖泊中排放含盐污水，导致水中含盐量较高。报告称，在这三个大洲中，每三条河流中就有一条河流的含盐量达到了中度或者高度。

Dietrich Borchardt called the increasing levels of water pollution over time “critical.”
迪特里希·博查特认为，随着时间的流逝，水污染的程度会越来越高，“这是很危险的”。

It [costs] much more [money] to clean up surface water from severe pollutionthan to [start effective] management, which includes prevention of pollution, he said.“Tools are available but the [problem] is [getting people to use] them.”
“从地表水中去除污染，比使用有效的管理措施的花费要多出很多，还包括了预防污染的费用。”他说。他说，“工具倒是有，但问题在于让如何人们去使用它们。”

I’m Pete Musto.
皮特·马斯托为您报道。