Which of the numbered sentences in the paragraph below is the thesis statement of this paragraph?

Question

(1) Acid mine drainage (AMD) has recently received wide coverage in the media, and as its potential impact on natural resources and human health and well-being become increasingly evident it is becoming a political issue. (2) The South African environment, including its water resources, soil, and people, are now threatened by pollution stemming from AMD, which is a legacy left behind by abandoned, derelict and defunct mines, and a continuing by-product of existing mining activities. (3) Whilst AMD carries a potential threat to the environment as a whole, it poses a particular threat to the country's water resources which will have severe consequences for the health and well-being of people. (4) Water is unevenly distributed across the country and "[w]ith just over 1200Kl of available fresh water for each person each year … [South Africa is] on the threshold of the international definition of 'water stress'. (5) This article subsequently illustrates that AMD will impact sustainability, including ecological, social and economic concerns. (6) In particular, AMD is set to affect infrastructure, displace people and affect their livelihoods, influence economic activity, impact on the resource extraction industry, and affect South Africa's policies and actions in relation to climate change and its efforts to move towards a low carbon economy; furthermore, it will test the efficiency of regulatory interventions emanating from both the private and the public sector to the extreme. (7) In this article we provide a survey of the AMD problem in South Africa through the law and governance lens.


2 and 3


6 and 7


4 and 5


1 and 2


5 and 6


3 and 4

Answer 1

The thesis statement of the paragraph is sentence (5): "This article subsequently illustrates that AMD will impact sustainability, including ecological, social and economic concerns." This sentence encapsulates the main argument of the paragraph regarding the implications of acid mine drainage on various aspects of sustainability.