THE HAGUE, Oct 4: Pakistan is among those countries where oil pollution is recorded at severe levels, says a United Nations released here on Wednesday. The other port countries facing the same problem include Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia and Nigeria.

The report says that untreated sewage pouring into the world’s seas and oceans is polluting their water and coastlines and endangering the health and welfare of the people and animals that inhabit them.

As well as the growing problem of sewage, oceans also are suffering from rising levels of nutrients such as run-off from agricultural land triggering toxic algal blooms that deprive the water of oxygen, destruction of coastal ecosystems such as mangroves and a rising tide of ocean litter, says the U.N. Environment Program’s State of the Marine Environment report.

“An estimated 80 per cent of marine pollution originates from the land and this could rise significantly by 2050 if, as expected, coastal populations double in just over 40 years time and action to combat pollution is not accelerated,” the UN Programme chief Achim Steiner said.

“We perhaps in the 20th century thought we could use the oceans as our sewage treatment plants,” Steiner told reporters here. “This sewage is not just something that goes into the sea and the sea does it for us anymore.” However, there was some good news; oil pollution is falling.—AP