Facts for Prelims (FFP)
Source: TH
Context: India is facing a critical shortage of phosphorus, which is essential for fertilizers but also a major environmental pollutant.
- The phosphorus shortage is due to its limited availability in geological formations and its contamination of water bodies when not properly managed.
Reasons for Phosphorous shortage:
- Currently, only a few countries, such as Morocco and the Western Sahara region, control most of the world’s phosphorus reserves, raising geopolitical concerns.
- A significant issue is the coexistence of cadmium, a harmful heavy metal, with phosphorus in some deposits. Cadmium-laden fertilizers are often used in agriculture, leading to health concerns, including heart disease.
- India is the world’s largest importer of phosphorus, primarily from cadmium-laden deposits in West Africa.
- Moreover, only a small portion of mined phosphorus is used in food production, with a significant amount lost to water bodies as agricultural runoff. Most of the phosphorus consumed by people ends up in sewage, exacerbating environmental problems like algal blooms and fish deaths.
To address the phosphorus scarcity, there is growing interest in mining urban sewage for high-quality phosphorus. This approach could create a sustainable source of phosphorus while mitigating environmental issues.
